The Library of Congress > THOMAS Home > Help > Congressional Record Search Help

About the Congressional Record Index

The Congressional Record Index provides access by index (subject) terms to the proceedings and debates of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, as published in the Congressional Record.

Two editions of the Congressional Record Index are required by law (44 U.S.C. 901): an index to the daily edition of the Congressional Record, which is published biweekly, and an index to the bound edition of the Record, which is published irregularly (i.e., when the bound edition of the Record itself is published). The index edition which appears on THOMAS is the index to the daily Record and is current as of the latest published biweekly edition of the Index. Page references are to the page numbers in the daily, rather than the final (bound), edition of the Congressional Record.

NOTE: Daily updates to the Congressional Record Index -- unedited and not proofed -- are made in preparation for publishing the final biweekly edition. Until the final biweekly edition is published, cumulative daily updates are available from GPO Access.

The Index is not only an indispensable guide to the contents of the Record, but it is also an important aid in tracing legislation.

The indices are composed of two parts, an index to the proceedings, which includes material in the Extensions of Remarks and is, in general, arranged by name as well as subject; and a history of bills and resolutions (for both House and Senate measures) which is arranged by bill and resolution numbers.

With the index, one can locate all of the Record page references to items such as the remarks made by a particular Member, all the bills and the amendments introduced by that Member as well as follow the legislative history of legislation, such as when a measure was introduced and/or reported, debated, passed, and enacted.

The Congressional Record Index is compiled under the direction of the Joint Committee on Printing.