Search Tips Overview

You can search Congress.gov using the quick search available on most pages or via the advanced search page. Advanced search gives you the option of using a guided search form or a command line entry box.

What Is Searched

From quick search, legislation from the current Congress is searched by default. To change the scope of your search by source, choose one from the selection list next to the search entry box. Source options include current legislation, all legislation, all sources, members (profiles), Congressional Record, committee reports, and nominations.

From advanced search, legislation including bill summary and status information and full bill text is searched.  You can choose to limit your search to one or more Congresses.

Searching by Number

Bill, resolution and amendment numbers include an alphabetical prefix and a number. To search, enter the prefix and number with or without spaces and periods, and in upper or lowercase.

Committee reports include an alphabetical prefix, Congress number and report number.

Public laws include an alphabetical prefix, Congress number and law number.

Prefix	Type	Example
H.R.	House Bill	H.R. 1060
H.J.Res.	House Joint Resolution	hjres47
H.Con.Res.	House Concurrent Resolution	HCONRES35
H.Res.	House Resolution	Hres103
H.A. or H.Amdt.	House Amendment	hamdt745
H.Rept.	House Report	hrept113-252
S.	Senate Bill	s823
S.J.Res.	Senate Joint Resolution	sjres19
S.Con.Res.	Senate Concurrent Resolution	sconres56
S.Res.	Senate Resolution	S.Res. 589
S.A. or S.Amdt.	Senate Amendment	SA64
S.Rept.	Senate Report	srept111-87
P.L.	Public Law	PL113-80

Phrase Searching

Use quotation marks around two or more words to find an exact match on your phrase.

Search Operators

Use the AND operator between search terms to retrieve results containing both terms. Use the OR operator between search terms to retrieve results containing at least one of the terms. Search operators must be entered in uppercase.

Use the proximity operator (~) to find two or more words within a specified distance of each other. Enter your search terms enclosed in quotation marks, followed by ~ and a number, to indicate how many intervening words may occur between your search terms. For example, "john kennedy"~3

Field Searching

Use a field qualifier to control where your search term or phrase is found in a document. For example, to retrieve legislation with the word 'snap' in the title, type title:snap in the search box. For a complete list of fields, see Field Searching. For legislation searches, the advanced search form provides a selection list of available fields.

Refining a Search

You can refine quick searches with facets or search within results. To refine an advanced search, modify your original search by adding or deleting criteria from the search form or command line at the top of the page.

Using Facets

Facets provide a way to narrow, or reduce, your set of search results by selecting additional search criteria from among those available in your initial result set. To learn more about specific facets available in Congress.gov, see Refining with Facets.

Using Search within Results

Another way to narrow your set of search results is by searching within your results. From any quick search results page, check Search within results to the right of the search box and enter your additional search terms. All of your search terms, orginial and additional, will be displayed at the top of your results. You can remove any term from your search by clicking on it.

Facets and Search with Results can be used together.

Navigating Search Results

The search results list provides brief information about each item. Select an item from the list to see the full content. Use your browser back button to return to the search results list, or use your browser's bookmark feature to save a direct link to your results.