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Bound Congressional Record: About

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873 and is still published today. GPO Access contains Congressional Record volumes from 140 (1994) to the present.

At the end of each session of Congress, all of the daily editions are collected, re-paginated, and re-indexed into a permanent, bound edition. This permanent edition, commonly referred to as the Bound Congressional Record, is made up of one volume per session of Congress, with each volume published in multiple parts. The primary ways in which the Bound Congressional Record differs from the daily edition are continuous pagination; somewhat edited, revised, and rearranged text; and the dropping of the prefixes H, S, and E before page numbers.

The final two parts of the Bound Congressional Record of each session are an index containing a history of bills and resolutions and a compilation of Daily Digests for the session. The conclusion of the latter contains a comprehensive resume of all legislative business transacted by the House and Senate during each session (at the end of odd numbered years) and a resume of all business transacted during an entire Congress (at the end of even numbered years).

An index to the bound edition of the Record is required by law (44 USC 901). The index is not only an indispensable guide to the contents of the Record, but it is also an important aid in tracking legislation. The biweekly indices of the daily edition cannot be used for the Bound Congressional Record, nor can the bound, permanent index to a session be used for the daily Record, since the daily and bound volume paginations are not the same.

The indices to the Bound edition are composed of two parts:

1. an index to the proceedings, which includes material in the Extensions of Remarks and is, in general, arranged by name as well as subject
2. a history of bills and resolutions (for both House and Senate measures) which is arranged by bill and resolution numbers.

For additional information and a detailed description of the daily edition and its four sections, visit the Congressional Record "About" page.

A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Last updated: May 25, 2007
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