Congressional Record Index

Last updated on 04-24-2024

Congressional Record Index (Daily), 1983 to Present

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About the Congressional Record Index

What is the Congressional Record Index?

The Congressional Record Index (CRI) serves as the index to the Congressional Record. When Congress is in session, the Joint Committee on Printing publishes the Congressional Record Index. In print, the Congressional Record Index contains both the index proper and the History of Bills and Resolutions. The History of Bills and Resolutions is a separate collection in govinfo.

The index proper lists individuals, organizations, and topics mentioned in the Congressional Record. Each CRI entry refers to a page number in the Congressional Record and the date of the daily issue in the format "S1234 [19JA]" (page 1234 in the Senate section from the January 19 issue for that year).

Members of Congress are listed alphabetically by last name in the Congressional Record Index. Thus, users must search for individuals by entering the last name before the first name. Additionally, users should include all forms of an individual's first name, since Members of Congress may choose how they want their name to appear in the Congressional Record. For instance, in the 1991 Congressional Record Index , Bob Dole is listed as both “Dole, Bob” and “Dole, Robert”.

What is Available?

govinfo contains CRI issues from 1983 to the present. All documents are available as ASCII text files. In addition, documents from the 1998 CRI are available as HTML files with links to pages in the Congressional Record.

Congressional Record Index Corrections

Online Corrections to the Congressional Record - A new, amended version of the Congressional Record was made available in the first quarter of 2007. The Secretary of the Senate, Clerk of the House, and JCP directed GPO to proceed with a pilot program for modifications to the online version of the Congressional Record.

First Phase of the Pilot Program

The first phase of the program was to print the corrections in a separate section of the final Congressional Record Index of the 109th Congress, early in 2007. Printing the corrections in the Congressional Record Index is intended to inform readers of the printed version of the Congressional Record that these corrections to the online version of the Congressional Record have been made.

Second Phase of the Pilot Program

The second phase involved placing these amended documents on GPO Access. GPO has made corrections to miscellaneous issues of the online version of the Congressional Record for 2005-2008. No content was removed during this process. The TEXT and PDF files were corrected, and the explanation of the corrections, including the original, uncorrected text, appears within the document. In the PDF version, the correction appears as a side-note that can be viewed by scrolling over the yellow "correction" boxes. In the TEXT version, the correction is noted by a series of asterisks, language alerting the reader to the correction, and the amended text. Congress has approved the corrections, typically small, clerical errors, and submitted them to GPO for this pilot program.

Programs other than the Adobe Reader that open PDF files may not allow users to view the corrections as the Adobe Reader will. PDF files are independent of computer platform or distribution media and are available to all users who have the free Adobe reader software. Download the free Adobe reader. The corrections can be viewed by all within the TEXT file provided as well.

Online Corrections to the Congressional Record Printed in the Congressional Record Index