Open Government

columns

In order to operate as transparently as possible, the House provides to the public a variety of disclosure documents, legislative resources, and video archives.

Learn About:

The House provides the following disclosure documents:

  • Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimates
    Cost estimates related to the federal budget.
  • Financial Disclosure Reports
    Information about the source, type, amount, or value of the incomes of House members, officers, and staff as well as employees of related offices and candidates for House office.
  • Foreign Travel Reports
    Reports of certain official foreign travel expenditures by House members and staff.
  • Franked Materials (Mass Mailings)
    Samples and descriptions of the contents of mass mailings from House members to their Congressional districts.
  • Gift and Travel Filings
    Reports detailing certain travel-related expenses of and charitable contributions to House members, officers, and staff.
  • Legal Expense Fund Disclosures
    Disclosure information about funds established to assist individual House members with certain legal expenses.
  • Office of Congressional Ethics
    Names of OCE board members and staff who have signed an agreement to not run for Congressional office until three years after their OCE service has ended.
  • Post-Employment Notifications
    Information concerning departing House members, officers, and certain covered House employees previously notified regarding statutory post-employment restrictions on lobbying and other activities and the beginning and ending dates of those restrictions.)

The House provides the following legislative resources:

  • Bills to Be Considered on the House Floor
    Weekly list of the legislation scheduled for consideration, with links to the full text of each bill.
  • Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimates
    The Congressional Budget Office is required to develop a cost estimate for virtually every bill reported by Congressional committees to show how it would affect spending or revenues over the next five years or more.
  • Congressional Committee Publications
    The Government Printing Office maintains electronic versions of printed bills, documents, hearings, prints, reports, and calendars of House committees.
  • Congressional Record
    The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the U.S. Congress. Also available as an iPad app.
  • Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for legislative documents in XML
    Information about work to use Document Type Definition files (DTDs) in the creation of legislative documents using eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Roll Call Votes are currently available in XML at the Office of the Clerk's website, and legislation prepared in XML (starting in January 2004) is available at thomas.loc.gov.
  • Roll Call Votes
    House Tally Clerks compile votes through an electronic voting machine.
  • Thomas
    The Library of Congress’s comprehensive legislative information research website.

The House provides the following office expenses disclosure documents:

  • Statement of Disbursements
    The Statement of Disbursements (SOD) is a quarterly public report of all receipts and expenditures for U.S. House of Representatives members, committees, leadership, officers and offices.
  • Franked Materials (Mass Mailings)
    For mass mailings to their congressional district, House members may use their signature, or frank, instead of a postage stamp. Copies of franked mail content samples and / or descriptions are available for all franked materials sent by House members.

The House provides the following video resources:

  • House Live
    Streaming video feeds of House Floor Proceedings dating back to the 111th Congress (2009-2010).
  • Live House Committee Video
    Links to live committee proceedings.
  • C-SPAN Member Video Archive
    Searchable video and information archive of C-SPAN’s House floor coverage dating back to the 95th Congress (1977-1978).
  • C-SPAN Committee Video Archive
    Searchable video and information archive of C-SPAN’s House committee coverage dating back to the 95th Congress (1977-1978).
  • C-SPAN Bill Video Archive
    Searchable video and information archive of C-SPAN’s House bills debate coverage dating back to the 95th Congress (1977-1978).
  • HouseHub on YouTube
    The House of Representatives' official YouTube resource.

The following video resources are not affiliated with the House of Representatives.

For more information related to the House’s ongoing transparency efforts, contact your representative and/or the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent, non-partisan entity that assists the House in upholding high standards of ethical conduct.