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Congressional Record Index (CRI): Search Tips

Sample Searches | Identification Codes | Retrieve Pages in the Congressional Record

Sample Searches (4)

The following sample searches are provided as guides to general types of searches in the CRI. They are performed in the 1998 CRI database. For the sake of space, only the top three hits in each results list are included with each example below.

Note: The results of these sample searches are described as they appear on the Web interface. The display of the results may vary for users of the WAIS client and SWAIS software.

Subject | Congressperson's Name | Prominent Individual's Title | Bill Number

1. Search by Subject

This type of search returns index entries that are related to a specific subject. The word(s) that you enter as your search term(s) may appear as index categories or in the text of an individual listing.

Query: "executive communications"

Results: cri98 EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

2. Search by Congressperson's Name

This type of search returns index entries based on a Member of Congress' name. The Member of Congress' last name should precede her/his first name in your query, because a "Last name, First name" format is used in the CRI. A query in which the first name precedes the last name may return index entries in which a Member of Congress is mentioned, but it will not return primary index entries for that individual. If a Member of Congress is known by more than one version of her/his first name, it is recommended that you search on all variations.

Query: Young ADJ (Don OR Donald)

Results: cri98 YOUNG, DON (a Representative from Alaska)

3. Search by Prominent Individual's Title

This type of search returns index entries based on a prominent individual's title. Unlike personal-name entries, the entries for prominent individuals, such as the U.S. president and vice president, appear by title with the name in parentheses (e.g., "cri98 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (Bill Clinton)"). If you are uncertain of how a name is listed in the CRI, it is recommended that you search with a query that includes both the name and title.

Note: Former presidents, vice presidents, and other officials are listed in the manner of personal names with their former titles in parentheses (e.g., "cri98 HUMPHREY, HUBERT H. (a former Vice President of the United States)").

Query: Albright AND "secretary of state"

Results: cri98 ALBRIGHT, MADELEINE KORBEL see Secretary of State (Madeleine Korbel Albright)

cri98 SECRETARY OF STATE (Madeleine Korbel Albright)

4. Search by Bill Number

This type of search returns index entries based on a given bill number. The bill number may be typed with or without punctuation. If no punctuation is used, you must leave a space between the h and the r for bills in the House.

Query: "h.r. 2070"

Result: cri98 CORRECTION OFFICERS HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT

cri98 CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS

cri98 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

Unlike a bill-number search in the History of Bills, which retrieves the legislative history of a bill, this type of search retrieves index entries that contain a reference to a given bill number. In the above example, H.R. 2070 is listed under subject entries that relate to the content of the bill and name entries for Members of Congress who sponsored, cosponsored, or spoke about the bill.

Identification Codes

In the list that displays your query results, the title of each CRI document is preceded by an identification code. The identification code contains two elements: a database abbreviation and the year of the index. For example, in the identification code "cri95," "cri" stands for Congressional Record Index, and 95 is the year of that index (1995).

Retrieve Pages in the Congressional Record

The HTML files in the 1998 CRI database contain direct links to the Congressional Record pages that are referenced by those index entries. Clicking on a link within the CRI retrieves a Congressional Record document as an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Once the PDF file is open, navigational tools at the bottom of the screen allow you to view the previous page, next page, or a page number that you enter in the "Go to page" box.