The Center for Legislative Archives

About Our Records

Records of Congress

The Center for Legislative Archives holds the historically valuable records of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, including the official Committee records, all of which remain the legal property of the House and Senate. The Center applies the rules of access for congressional records as determined by the House and the Senate.

The Center has a variety of resources for getting started with your research, including research guides.

Legislative Branch Organization and Commission Records

The Center also holds records from legislative branch organizations and legislative branch commissions, such as the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Technology Assessment, publications from the Government Printing Office, and the records of the 9/11 Commission.

Special Collections

To supplement the official records of Congress housed at the Center, the Center for Legislative Archives maintains other materials in its holdings:

Research Room

The Center for Legislative Archives is located in the National Archives building in downtown Washington, DC. For directions and additional information about conducting research at the National Archives, visit Information for Researchers at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.

In the research room, the Center maintains published source material on Congress including the Journals of the House and Senate, the Congressional Record (and its predecessors the Globe and the Annals of Congress), Guide to the U.S. Serial Set, CIS Indexes, as well as other works on the history of Congress. Visit the Center's page on Getting Started With Your Research for more information.

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