Manship School of Mass Communication

The Congressional Research Service:

• is the non-partisan policy research arm of the United States Congress
• has been a component of the Library of Congress since 1914
• produces documents at the request of and for the use of members of Congress
• does not provide direct public access to its reports
• can Google "crs report" and topic to find some reports

Sample reports:

• Freedom of Speech and Press: Exceptions to the First Amendment (2014)
• What Happens When Five Supreme Court Justices Can't Agree (2018)
• The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA):  Background, Legislation, and Policy Issues (2014)
• Access to Broadband Networks:  The Net Neutrality Debate (2015)

Finding CRS Publications Online

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports, requiring citizens to request them from their Member of Congress. Some Members, as well as several non-profit groups, have posted the reports on their Web sites. Below is a listing of major collection sites that lead to more specialized collection sites.

Congressional Research Service Reports - UNT

Integrated, searchable access to many full-text CRS reports available on the Web since 1990. Over 15,000 reports and counting are available from this site.

Thurgood Marshall Law Library

From the University of Maryland, the Law Library maintains an online archive of reports from 1993.

Federation of American Scientists CRS Reports

A very good site for current reports, organized by broad category but not very searchable nor historic.

Archive-It Congressional Research Service Reports

This site searches across many of the sites that provide free access to CRS reports - often a lag in current updates.