Penn State University Libraries - Legislative Branch Publications

House and Senate Bills

House and Senate Bills are the usual form in which legislation is proposed to the U.S. Congress. Although thousands of bills may be introduced, few are enacted into law, and many do not receive serious consideration. If not enacted into law, a bill "dies" at the end of a Congress.

Joint Resolutions

Basically equivalent to bills, joint resolutions pertain to more limited matters and are used for constitutional amendments and appropriations measures.

Concurrent Resolutions

Concurrent resolutions are used to express facts, opinions, principles, or purposes - jointly by both the House and Senate, for example,

• fixing the time for congressional adjournment
• appointing a joint committee
• sending a congratulatory message to a foreign country

Simple Resolution

A simple resolution is considered by only one chamber and is used for procedural matters and rules. For example, during the 100th Congress, the House of Representatives amended its rules to allow members to refer to the Senate by its name instead of as "the other body".

House and Senate Documents

House and Senate documents are the class of publications issued by congressional committees or the full House or Senate that are numbered with the designation H. Doc. or S. Doc. This publication type can contain:

• Presidential messages proposing new legislation or vetoing legislation passed by Congress
• special reports of executive branch agencies
• congressional committee activity reports
• committee-sponsored special studies
• background information published as official documents rather than committee prints
• annual reports of certain patriotic and veterans groups
• memorial tributes
• compilations of background information related to annual intercollegiate and high school debate topics

Committee Prints

The official committee prints publication category began when committees started to issue printed versions of their own internal working papers. Today, committee prints include a wide variety of publications approved and issued by committees or portions of committees, such as majority or minority staff. Prints issued by only a portion of the committee are normally identified as such on the cover.

A committee print can contain anything relevant to the legislative and oversight functions of Congress. The print content varies widely from committee to committee, and over the course of time the function and format have been inconsistent. Examples of committee print content include:

• research papers by committee staff, Congressional Research Service experts, or outside consultants
• committee rules and calendars
• compilations of laws
• transcripts of markup sessions or other proceedings
• legislative descriptions and analyses

Many committee prints may best be described as reports, but these reports should not be confused with reports that are numbered as official House or Senate Reports.

House and Senate Reports

House and Senate reports are the designated class of publications by which congressional committees report and make recommendations to the House or Senate as a whole. These reports concern the findings of committee hearings or the outcome of committee deliberations. They can contain:

• discussions of legislative intent
• a short history of a bill
• comparisons of current and proposed law text

Congressional Hearings

Published hearings are the official record of committee hearings proceedings. Hearings, which are usually open to the public, are held to enable committees to gather opinions and information to help Members make decisions regarding proposed legislation or to help them fulfill their oversight and investigation responsibilities.

Official hearings publications, which are printed by the Government Printing Office (GPO), usually include:

• written and oral statements of witnesses
• transcripts of the verbal question-and-answer session between the committee and witnesses
• reports, exhibits, and other materials submitted for the record by witnesses
• correspondence and other materials submitted by interested parties

Most hearings are published from six months to a year after the hearing is held, but some hearings are published following a gap of two or more years. The timing of the publication depends solely on the schedule of the individual committee.

Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is the official transcript of debates of the House and the Senate. The Record is divided into four parts and paginated as follows in the daily edition:

• The debate and other floor action of the House and of the Senate are paginated separately, with page numbers beginning with H (as in H8793) for House debate and S (as in S3987) for Senate debate.
• Material not spoken on the floor may appear in the Extension of Remarks (paged as in E2347) section that appears in the Record after the Senate and House floor debate sections. If a member speaking on the floor requests permission "to revise and extend my remarks", those revisions appear in the Extension of Remarks portion of the Record.
• The fourth portion of the Record, known as the Daily Digest (paged as in D739), contains a brief synopsis of floor action in both the House and Senate and in all the committees that met on that day. The Daily Digest is especially useful for identifying each day's floor amendments and their disposition.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents

This publication contains a wide range of Presidential documents, including speeches, executive orders, and proclamations. It also includes legislation signed and vetoed by the President.