Congressional Directory

Congressional Directory, 41st Congress (1869) to Present

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About the Congressional Directory

What is the Congressional Directory?

The Congressional Directory is the official directory of the U.S. Congress, prepared by the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP). It presents:

• Short biographies of each member of the Senate and House, listed by state or district.
• Committee memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers for Members of Congress.
• Lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. government officials, governors of states and territories, foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and television galleries.

What is available?

GPO's GovInfo contains directories for the 41st (1869-1871) Congress forward, as well as interim editions (online-only revisions). Directories for the 105th Congress forward are created electronically and are available in PDF and text formats. Documents from the 105th Congress forward can be accessed as full volumes or as smaller sections. Directories for the 41st-104th Congress are made available as digitally imaged PDF and text versions. These directories are available as full volume PDF files only. Please note the text versions for the 41st-104th Congresses contain only a copy of the optical character recognition (OCR) text. Any issues with the OCR will appear in the text files. The Congressional Directory is available to browse here.

According to the U.S. Code (44 USC 721), the Congressional Directory is made available as early as practicable during each new Congress. Subsequent to delivery of the printed 1997-1998 Congressional Directory, the JCP established the practice of producing periodic online interim issues to ensure the public's economical access to current Congressional information. The frequency of these online revisions will be determined by the volume of changes submitted for incorporation. No printed counterpart will exist for these online publication revisions.

GPO's Online Bookstore has the print edition available for purchase.

Searching the Congressional Directory

Search options are available by clicking the orange SEARCH button in the top right of any page across the site.

Basic Search – Use keywords, search operators, and metadata fields in the single search box.

Search over just the Congressional Directory by:

• Adding collection:cdir to your Basic Search query, or
• After you execute the search, filter the results on the left by selecting Congressional Directory from the "Collections" section under "Refine Your Search".

Advanced Search – Click here to select a date or date range, collection, and up to 5 fields to search in. Select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection first! Then, fields custom to the Congressional Directory will populate automatically in the box under Search In.

Refine Search Results - After executing a Basic or Advanced Search, use the filters on the left to refine the results. These filters correspond to the metadata available for the documents. Note: Additional filter options will become available once you refine the search to just the Congressional Directory by selecting Congressional Directory from the "Collections" section under "Refine Your Search".

Browse – Click here to browse editions of the Congressional Directory by Congress and year.

General GovInfo Search Tips

Search by Congress Number – For example, the 109th Congress.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir congress:109
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Number from the first box and select 109 from the next box

The following search examples are available for directories from the 105th Congress forward:

Search by Congress Member Name – For example, Nancy Pelosi.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir member:pelosi
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Member Name from the first box and enter pelosi in the next box

Search by Section – For example, the Senate Committees section.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir section:senatecommittees
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Section from the first box and select Senate Committees from the next box

Search by Congress Member State – For example, members from California.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir state:ca
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select State, District, or Territory from the first box and select California from the next box

Search by District and State – For example, the 5th district of California.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir state:ca district:5
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select State, District, or Territory from the first box and select California from the next box; then click + Additional Criteria and select District Number from the next text box that appears and enter 5 in the next box

Search by Zip Code – For example, the 90503 zip code.

• Using Basic Search, enter: collection:cdir zipcodes:90503
• Using Advanced Search, select Congressional Directory under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Member Zip Codes from the first box and enter 90503 in the next box

Sample Congressional Directory URLs

GPO's GovInfo uses two key pieces of information to construct predictable URLs to documents and Details pages.

• The Granule ID for the Congressional Directory is used to identify the specific document within an issue of the publication.
• The Package ID is used to identify an individual issue of the publication.

Granule ID

Details Page for a Specific Document

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/{Package ID}/{Granule ID}

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CDIR-2008-08-01/CDIR-2008-08-01-CA-S-1

PDF File for a Specific Document

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/pdf/{Granule ID}.pdf

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDIR-2008-08-01/pdf/CDIR-2008-08-01-CA-S-1.pdf

HTML File for a Specific Document

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/html/{Granule ID}.htm

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDIR-2008-08-01/html/CDIR-2008-08-01-CA-S-1.htm

Details Page for an Entire Issue

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/{Package ID}

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CDIR-2008-08-01

PDF File for an Entire Issue

Structure: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/{Package ID}/pdf/{Package ID}.pdf

Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CDIR-2008-08-01/pdf/CDIR-2008-08-01.pdf

Congressional Directory Metadata Fields and Values

Metadata fields and values can be used to increase the relevancy of your searches. The metadata fields available for the Congressional Directory are listed in the table below. Metadata fields and values are used throughout GovInfo for

• Narrowing Your Search,
• Browsing Government Publications,
• Field Operators,
• Advanced Search, and
• Display on Details Pages.

Metadata fields and values can be entered into the Basic Search box using field operators. The field operators available for the Congressional Directory are listed in the table below, along with examples for each metadata field. Using Field Operators

Some of these metadata fields are made available for use in Advanced Search. The metadata values can be entered in the same format for the fields available on the Advanced Search Page. Using Advanced Search

Section Metadata Values

The table below lists the metadata values which can be used when limiting your search using the Section advanced search field or the section: field operator. Remember to select "View Historical Results" on the Search Results page if you want to search over the older editions of the Congressional Directory as well.

Related Resources

• Online Guide to House and Senate Members - A single point of access for Member information from several different official sources.
• Browse the Congressional Pictorial Directory - Color photographs of all of the men and women of Congress.
• Contact your local Federal Depository Library - The Federal Depository Library Directory
• Purchase printed copies - From GPO's Online Bookstore