Journal of the House of Representatives

Last updated on 06-14-2022

Journal of the House of Representatives, 1992 to 2017

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About the Journal of the House of Representatives

What is the Journal of the House of Representatives?

In Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution, it states, "Each House shall keep a Journal if its Proceedings, and from time-to-time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy;...".  Accordingly, the Journal and not the Congressional Record, is the official record of the proceedings of the House.  

The Journal is the official record of proceedings of each legislative day in the House of Representatives.  The Journal records the result of every vote, and state in general terms the subject of it; therefore, the recorded votes on amendments occurring in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union are recorded in the Journal, but not the proceedings.  The Journal contains no verbatim debate, but instead a rendition of all the official actions of the House, including every motion made and every vote taken.

While in session, the proceedings are recorded in note form by a Journal Clerk at the dais, on the Floor of House of Representatives, in a large book called the "Journal Minute Book".  Another Journal Clerk produces a manuscript of the actions in more detail by computer.   The final, complete daily manuscript (computer generated) is proofed and presented to the Parliamentarians for review, and then, approved by the Speaker, prior to the next legislative day.  Approval of the Journal, by the Speaker, is the first order of business of each legislative day.

At the close of each session of a Congress, the Journal is published in bound, hard copy form, CD.  The Journal has a limited distribution, pursuant to the provisions of Section 713, Title 44, United States Code, which, of course, includes all Members of Congress.  It is not a document that can be purchased from the Government Publishing Office by the Public.

"Sections" in the House Journal include each legislative day's recorded proceedings, which comprise Part l and Part 2, with the following Journal documents: Proceedings Subsequent to Sine Die Adjournment, Rules of the House of Representatives, Table of Indexes, Questions of Order, History of Bills and Resolutions, Index Subjects, Index, and Appendix to the Index.

What is available?

  • House Journals from the 102nd Congress forward are available

Searching the Journal of the House of Representatives

You can find and search the Journal of the House by:

  • Using Basic Search for keyword and metadata fielded searches,
  • Using Advanced Search; fields specific to the House Journal will display after you select Journal of the House of Representatives in the Refine by Collection column,
  • Refining search results by clicking on links in the Refine Your Search panel on the left hand side of the page (the sections under Refine Your Search correspond to the metadata available for the documents), and
  • Browsing the House Journal browse page.

General govinfo Search Tips

Search Examples

Search by Congress Member – For example, documents from congress member Kennedy or that mention congress member Kennedy.

  • Using Basic Search, enter: collection:hjournal member:kennedy
  • Using Advanced Search, select Journal of the House of Representatives under Refine by Collection, then under Search In select Congress Member from the first box and enter kennedy in the next box

Or for example, documents from congress member Don Young with the word defense in the full text or metadata.

  • Using Basic Search, enter: defense and click Search, then Refine Your Search by selecting House Journal from the Collection category and Young, Don from the Congress Member category
  • Using Advanced Search, select Journal of the House of Representatives under Refine by Collection, then under Search In enter defense in the second text box, then Refine Your Search by selecting House Journal from the Collection category and Young, Don from the Congress Member category
  • Using Basic Search, enter collection:hjournal publishdate:1997-11-13
  • Using Advanced Search, under Date Range select Date is from the first box and enter or select 11/13/1997 in the next box, then select Journal of the House of Representatives under Refine by Collection

Search by Date – For example, documents from November 13, 1997.

Search by Bill Number – For example, documents that reference H.R. 2107.

  • Using Basic Search, enter collection:hjournal billscitation:"H.R. 2107"

Sample Journal of the House of Representatives URLs

govinfo uses two key pieces of information to construct predictable URLs to documents and Details pages.

  • The Package ID is used to identify a yearly edition of the Journal of the House of Representatives.
  • The Granule ID is used to identify individual documents within the yearly edition of the Journal of the House of Representatives.

Identifier

Structure/Metadata Field

Examples

Package ID

HJOURNAL-{Year}

HJOURNAL-1999

Granule ID

Daily Parent Granule:

{Package ID}-{month}-{day}

 

Daily Front Matter Granule:

{Package ID}-{month}-{day}-frontmatter

 

Paragraph Granule:

{Package ID}-{month}-{day}-para{Granule Number}

 

Note: For Granule Number, 30.21 becomes 30-21.

 

Year-end Section Granules:

{Package ID}-{Granule Class}

 

Note: The Granule Class values can be found in the table below.

Daily Parent Granule:

HJOURNAL-1999-04-12

 

Daily Front Matter Granule:

HJOURNAL-1999-04-12-frontmatter

 

Paragraph Granule:

HJOURNAL-1999-04-12-para30-21

 

Year-end Section Granules:

HJOURNAL-1999-rules

Granule Class

Granule Glass Value

TABLE

table

QUESTION

question

HISTORY

history

SUBJECTS

sub

INDEX

index

APPENDIX

app

RULES

rules

POSTSINEDIE

postsinedie

OTHER

other

Details Page for a Journal of the House of Representatives Edition

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

Example: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/HJOURNAL-1999

 

HTML File for a Journal of the House of Representatives Edition

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

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HJOURNAL-1999/html/HJOURNAL-1999.html

 

Details Page for a Journal of the House of Representatives Granule

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

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/HJOURNAL-1999/HJOURNAL-1999-02-08-para6-5/content-detail.html

 

PDF File for a Journal of the House of Representatives Granule

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

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HJOURNAL-1999/pdf/HJOURNAL-1999-02-08-para6-5.pdf

 

HTML File for a Journal of the House of Representatives Granule

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

Example:  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/HJOURNAL-1999/html/HJOURNAL-1999-02-08-para6-5.htm


Journal of the House of Representatives 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 Record Index 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 Federal Register 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

Metadata Field Display Name

Metadata Field Definition

Field Operator

Field Operator Example

Collection

The collection to which the document belongs. Typically the same as the publication or series.

collection:

 

collection:hjournal

 

"hjournal" is used for Journal of the House of Representatives

Government Author

The names of the Government organizations responsible for authoring or assembling the document.

governmentauthor:

governmentauthor:congress

Publication Date

The date the document was first made available to the public.

publishdate:

publishdate:2002-12-31

 

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Language

The language code of the original document, from the ISO639-2b standard.

language:

language:en

Former Identifier

The document ID of the article on the former www.gpoaccess.gov website.

formerid:

formerid:"f:06day1030.wais"

SuDoc Class Number

The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency.

sudocclass:

sudocclass:"XJH:"

 

The SuDoc Class Numbers in govinfo are generally at the class stem level, not the book number level.

Ingestion Date

The date the document was ingested into the FDsys preservation repository.

ingestdate:

ingestdate:2010-07-30

 

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Electronic Location (URL)

The URL where the document or the document in context (the content detail page) is located.

url:

url:"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/HJOURNAL-1999/pdf/HJOURNAL-1999-04-12-para…"

Publisher

The government organization who publishes the document or publication. Not typically the Government Publishing Office (who serves as the printer and distributor), except in the case of Congressional publications.

publisher:

publisher:"u.s. government printing office"

Branch

The branch of Government responsible for the document's contents.

branch:

branch:legislative

 

Possible Values: executive, legislative, judicial

Type of Resource

The media type for the document, typically "text". Defined as part of the Library of Congress MODS standard.

typeofresource:

typeofresource:text

WAIS Database Name

The name of the WAIS database to which the document belonged in the former GPO Access system.

waisdbname:

waisdbname:2002_house_journal

Record Origin

How the record was originally generated. Typically "machine generated."

recordorigin:

recordorigin:"machine generated"

Publication Title

The title of the publication. Individual documents can be searched using the title field operator.

title:

title:"Congressional Budget"

Congress Number

The number of the Congress responsible for the document. Congresses last for two years, so for example, the 105th Congress was in session from 1997 through 1998.

congress:

congress:105

Session Number

The session of congress which produced the report.

session:

session:2

 

Possible Values: 1, 2

Congress Chamber

 

The chamber of congress responsible for the document. One of "House", "Senate" or "Joint". In the case of Journal of the House of Representatives, it is always “House”.

chamber:

 

chamber:house

Page Number

The page number of a page in the Journal of the House of Representatives.

pagenum:

pagenum:302

Day Number

The integer number of the day for the Journal of the House of Representatives day.

daynum:

daynum:29

Paragraph Number

The paragraph number in the Journal of the House of Representatives, for example "123.5".

paragraphnum:

paragraphnum:123.5

Congress Member

The name of the Congress member referenced in the text of the document.

member:

member:kennedy

Congressional Committee

The name of the Congressional committee referenced in the document.

committee:

committee:transportation

Citation

The GPO standard method for searching citation references from the selected publication.

citation:

citation:"1995 H. Journal Pg. 177"

Congressional Bills Citation

Citation references to Congressional Bills. Examples include, "H.R. 99", "S. 99" "H.J. Res. 99", "S.J. Res. 99", "H. Con. Res. 99", "S. Con. Res. 99", "H. Res. 99" or "S. Res. 99".

billscitation:

billscitation:"h.r. 2107"

Congressional Report

Citation

Citation references to Congressional Reports. For example, "H. Rept. 106-32".

crptcitation:

crptcitation:"h. rept. 105-137"

United States Code

Citation

Citation references to the United States Code. For example, "42 U.S.C. 5841" or "42 U.S.C. App. 99"

uscodecitation:

uscodecitation:"3 U.S.C. 208"

Statutes at Large

References

Citation references to Statutes at Large. For example, "88 Stat. 1242".

statutecitation:

statutecitation:"31 Stat. 206"

Public and Private Law

References

Citation references to Public or Private Laws. For example, "Public Law 106-32" or "Private Law 106-3".

plawcitation:

plawcitation:"Public Law 103-272"

CFR Citation

Citation references, including title and part numbe,r from the Code of Federal Regulations, in standard citation format. For example "14 CFR Part 802" or "14 CFR Chapter IV".

cfrcitation:

cfrcitation:"12 CFR Part 932"

Presidential Document Citation

Citation references to presidential documents. Examples include "Executive Order 13293", "Presidential Proclamation 8932", and "Presidential Determination 2003-23".

presdoccitation:

presdoccitation:"Executive Order 12808"

Reference Citation

Reference to another document within the text of a document.

refcitation:

refcitation:"12 CFR Part 932"

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