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Reports

 

Contact

Stephen Woods photo

Stephen Woods
Title: Social Sciences Librarian Specializing in Data and Government Information


Subject Specialist:
Statistics and Data
U.S. Government Documents
814-865-0665
e-mail: sjw31@psu.edu

Social Sciences Library

 

Introduction

Committees are charged with making recommendations on the passage of bills. This process is called "reporting out". The "report" is a written statement by the committee detailing what the bill is designed to accomplish and why (or why not) they are recommending passage. Generally, it is only when the committee is recommending passage that a bill is reported out. If the committee can not reach consensus on the merits of a bill some members may write minority or dissenting views which will be included in the report.

There may be more than one report on any piece of legislation. In some cases more than one committee in a chamber may consider the legislation. In other cases, you may find both a House and a Senate report. In addition, as the House and Senate work to reconcile differences in their respective versions of a piece of legislation, a conference committee may issue a report.

Reports are valuable in understanding a bill's intent and may be used by courts when determining legal issues related to federal laws.

These reports are part of the published record of Congress and are available either in print, microfiche, and/or online.

  • The CAT (Penn State Libraries' online catalog)
    Search for Committee publications owned by Penn State Libraries in The CAT (the Libraries' online catalog).

Print Index

  • CIS Index
    The best index to congressional committee publications. Covers 1970 to the present.

Online Resources

  • ProQuest Congressional [Penn State Libraries]
    An online version of the CIS Index with additional services linking users to transcripts of important hearings and the full text of both bills and selected committee reports for recent years. (available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account)

    • The reports are available in the CIS microfiche collection located in the Social Sciences Library microfiche collection (2nd Floor Paterno Library).

  • THOMAS (Library of Congress)
    One of the main links to congressional information. THOMAS provides links to committee home pages and generally has the full text of reports.

  • GPO (Government Printing Office)
    The GPO databases provide a history of legislation (beginning with 1993) and the full text of all bills, resolutions, public laws, and The Congressional Record, as well as reports from committees.