Complete Historical Congressional Record Now Available Online

 On January 3, 2018, the Government Publishing Office (GPO) issued the final release of its project to digitize the historical Congressional Record. This release covers the first issue of the Congressional Record from March 5, 1873, through 1890. All releases in this digitization project are available on Govinfo, the website that will eventually replace the GPO’s FDsys.

The Congressional Record is an important and useful source when conducting legislative history research. It is published daily while Congress is in session, and is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. Each daily edition contains the Daily Digest, House Section, Senate Section, and Extension of Remarks. The daily editions are later collected, re-paginated, and re-indexed into a bound edition when each Congressional session has ended. These permanent, bound editions are now available on Govinfo, covering 1873-2009. The daily editions are also available online, covering 1994-present, on both Govinfo and FDsys. Prior to 1873, proceedings and debates of Congress were published in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873). Those publications are available through the Library of Congress’s American Memory Project.