The Congressional Record contains verbatim transcripts of debates, etc., from the floor of Congress as well as any related material members of Congress wish to add, plus a record of votes and the disposition of bills. Before the daily issues are published in "bound," final form, members of Congress can edit their remarks substantially, as well as include or delete supplementary material.

Congressional Record and related publications (it has changed names over the years) are available as follows:

• Congressional Record, 1977- present, in Documents Microfiche Colleciton (X 1.1:)
• Congressional Record, 1964-Jan., 1977: hardbound, in Documents Collection (X 1.1:)
• Congressional Record, 1873-1963: microfilm, on First Floor of the Library
• Congressional Globe, 1833-1873: microfilm, on First Floor of the Library (MF20)
• Register of Debates, 1824-1837: microfiche, on First Floor of the Library (MFC 4)
• Annals of Congress, 1789-1824: microfiche, on First Floor of the Library (MFC 4)

Two electronic publications from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC. can be helpful in researching Congressional debates:

• Sessions of Congress with Corresponding Debate Record Volume Numbers (this is a PDF file)
• Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications

Since the Journals are published at the end of a Session, there may be a long gap between the last Journal received and the current Congressional Session. The Library has Journals from 1979 to the present.

Individual Committee Calendars. Each Committee publishes several Calendars during each Session which give the status of Bills that have been referred to them. Each new Calendar supersedes the previous one, except for a final edition at the end of each Congress. They are usually considered Committee Prints and are shelved (or filed) with the Committee's other publications in the Y 4. section.

Memorial Addresses. Classed Y 7.1:, these documents contain the addresses delivered in Congress to eulogize members who died while in office.

Congressional Budget Office Publications.  These analytical publications on many diverse topics are classified Y 10. and are usually received in paper format.

Congressional Record. This database contains full text of the daily Congressional Record from 1994 to the present, through the Government Printing Office's new Federal Digital System or FDSys interface. This link is to a page that allows browsing the Record by date, or you can choose this collection to search from their Advanced Search Page. The FDSys search engine is much more powerful than the older GPO Access system, and offers a myriad of search options and ways to narrow search results. It also provides a more comprehensive system of help screens; here is the section on the Congressional Record.

The FDSys is also beginning to offer the "bound" version of the Record online as well. Currently coverage goes back to 1998. And the Congressional Record Index is on FDSys from 1983 to the present.

House Journal. GPO Access provides keyword searching of their full-text database of Journal issues beginning with 1991 (remember the Journal is intended to be a permanent record, not a current awareness tool). You may search one or more years of the Journal, or retrieve an entire section of a particular year. To access this database from the main GPO Access page, choose "A-Z Resource List" at the left of the page, then choose "H" for House Journal.

House and Senate Calendars. GPO Access provides keyword searching of  Calendars (summaries of legislation considered and its disposition) from the 104th Congress (1995) to the present. The current Congress' Calendar is updated frequently; for past Congresses, the Calendar in the database is the final edition. To access the Calendars, choose the "View All" option from the "Legislative Resources" section in the center of the page. Then look under "Congressional Materials."

Congressional Record. Thomas offers full-text searching of the Record from the 101st Congress (1989) to the present. In addition to specifying keywords, you can choose to search the remarks of a particular member of Congress and/or limit your search by various date options. You may only search one Congress at a time, however (the current Congress is the default setting). Thomas also provides an electronic index to the Record for 1995 to the present. Again, you must search each Congress separately. A convenient feature of Thomas' Record coverage, if you know the recent date that you want, is their "Browse Daily Issues" option. A table of contents is provided for each section of each daily issue, with links to the full text. You can also take a look at the "Latest Daily Digest."

Committee Schedules. Thomas provides quick links to upcoming Committee hearing schedules. Look under "Current Activity."

Congressional Budget Office. The reports, cost estimates, and other studies produced by this office are available on their web site. You can browse by subjects (under "Documents") or perform a full-text search. The reports are available in HTML, PDF, PostScript or WordPerfect formats.