Congressional Research Service Reports

The Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, provides research reports to members of Congress on a wide range of topics. The reports provide non-partisan, in-depth, and high quality information on a particular topic and can therefore be extremely useful, especially for legislative or public policy research. However, the reports are not widely distributed and are not provided directly to the general public.

There are a number of web sites which provide free access to selected CRS reports. Sites which provide large online collections include the following:

• University of North Texas Libraries - collection of CRS reports on a variety of topics, from 1990 to the present - users can search by keyword, title, author, subject, or report number, or browse by subject
• OpenCRS Network - almost 13,000 reports on a variety of topics - users can search for reports or browse a list of the most recent ones
• Thurgood Marshall Law Library - collection of reports on the subjects of Homeland Security/Terrorism and Health Law and Policy, from 1993 to the present - users can browse reports by subject, title, or date
• National Council for Science and the Environment - over 1,900 reports on environmental and related topics, from 1990 to the present - users can browse report titles and abstracts using a subject list, or search by keyword, title, or author
• Franklin Pierce Law Center-IP Mall - collection of reports on intellectual property, cyberlaw, and electronic commerce, from 1993 to the present
• Federation of American Scientists - collection of reports on national security, foreign policy, terrorism, and related topics - users can browse reports by general topic

J. Fusaris