Research Guides
Government Sources by Subject: Congressional Hearings
Starting Points
A hearing is a meeting or session of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee of Congress, typically open to the public, that seeks to obtain information or opinions related to proposed legislation. The published hearings include the transcripts of oral testimonies including the questions and statements made by the members of congress. Written reports submitted by witnesses to congress may also be included. For information about congressional hearings on microform, see CIS and Other Microform Hearings.
- ProQuest Congressional
This link opens in a new window
Access for all on-campus; login required from off-campus. 1824-present. Full text from 1824-1979, includes unpublished hearings. Use the Advanced Search to restrict your search to hearings. - Congressional Hearings Collection - Hein1849 - present. Full-text searching and filters for House/Senate, Committee, and Congress.
- Congressional Hearings - GPO1955-present. Hearings from the Government Publishing Office are available for download in PDF and TXT format. Earlier years continue to be added.
- CQ Transcripts
- This link opens in a new window
Access for all on-campus; login required from off-campus. 1995-present. Use the basic search to browse by committee and date or the advanced search to search by keyword. - Gallagher Law Library1980-present. The Gallagher Law Library has hearings on microfiche shelved by their SuDoc number.
- Hearings in print at the U.W. - Catalog Search1991-present, with select older hearings going back to the early 1900s, are available in print. Hearings are shelved in the GovPub Stacks U.S. in the Y4s. Enter your search terms, choose University of Washington Libraries, then narrow your results using the sidebar on the left to find the exact call number.
- Hearings on Microform at the U.W. - Catalog Search1951-1961. Enter your search terms, choose University of Washington Libraries, then narrow your results using the sidebar on the left. Ask at the Government Publications help desk for assistance in finding the desired microfilm reel numbers via the Government Publications historic files. They will need you to bring them the document's Superintendent of Documents (SuDoc) number.
- Unpublished U.S. House of Representatives and Senate Committee HearingsWithin ProQuest Congressional use Advanced Search; limit to hearings. Once you execute a search, you can further limit to unpublished hearings and the House or Senate committee.
Print index for unpublished House of Representatives Committee Hearings, 1833-.
Print index for unpublished Senate Committee Hearings, 1823-.
Congressional Testimony Collections
- Congressional Testimony 2017 - 2021 - U.S. Department of State2017 - current. Listed chronologically, most current first.
- Congressional Testimony 2009 - 2016 - U.S. Department of State2009 - 2016. Browse by year and month.
- Congressional Testimony 2001 - 2009 - U.S. Department of State2001 - 2008. Browse by year and month.
- Congressional Testimony - U.S. Food and Drug Administration1996-current. Testimony by FDA officials before House and Senate Committees and Subcommittees.
- Congressional Testimony - USAID2009-current. Organized by date.
- Testimony - Federal Trade Commission1997-current. Statements before Congressional Committees and comments on legislation by FTC Commissioners and staff.
- Testimony - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission1995-current. Congressional testimony given by the Chairman, Commissioners, and staff of the SEC.
- War Powers - Library of CongressA list of hearings on the topic of war powers. Use the bibliographic info listed here to find the full text via the sources in the Congressional Hearings box.
Decoding CIS Numbers
The CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings on microfiche are organized into five groups and the UW Libraries holds all. Groups 1A, 1B, and 3 are filed in one cabinet, groups 2 and 4 in another cabinet. Once you have found the group number and CIS number in ProQuest Congressional or the print index, use the following examples to understand the filing system.
Group 1A
CIS #: S448-3
Senate Volume 448 3rd document in the volume. Note: the 3 is visible on the body of the microfiche, not the header.
Group 1B (Hearings published as Documents or Reports)
Because these hearings were published as documents and reports, they can also be found in the Serial Set. The first example is the CIS number from the print index. When using ProQuest to identify the CIS number, you may encounter either of these numbering systems. The Serial Set microfiche are shelved in M-5010.
CIS #: (46-1) H.rpt. v. 5 n. 785
Congress 46 - Session 1 House Report Volume 5 report number 785
CIS #: 1627 H.rpt.785
Serial Set volume number 1627 House Report report number 785
Note: the report number is visible on the body of the microfiche next to the first page of the hearing.
Group 2
Greenwood Supplement, 1839-1934
HAg 50-A
House Agriculture Committee 50th Congress, item designation A. Note: the year is visible on the header of the microfiche.
Group 3
CIS #: 79 H1085-2
79th Congress House volume 1085 2nd document in the volume. Note: the 2 is visible on the body of the microfiche, not the header.
Group 4
CIS #: (89) HAp-1
89th Congress House Appropriations Committee item designation 1. Note: the year is visible on the header of the microfiche.
Apollo 13 Senate Space Committee Hearing
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Congressional Hearing - Google News
Loading ...
Congressional Hearings: Bing News
Loading ...