An executive communication is a message sent to the Senate by the President, executive branch officials, or state or local governments.
Scope of Coverage
Congress.gov includes records for executive communications (EC), presidential messages (PM) and petitions & memorials (POM) transmitted to the Senate from the 96th Congress (1979-1980) through the present.
Information for the current congress is updated once a day, usually by 8 am.
Searching Senate Communications
You can search Senate executive communications from the search bar by selecting Senate Communications as the source and entering your search terms in the search box. Senate communications also are included when you search All Sources.
You can search by number or keyword from the Senate Communications search form or from advanced search, which includes a query builder and a command line search for using SOLR query syntax. See Search Tools Overview for details on using operators and fields in your search query. Senate communications fields can be used in the search bar and the advanced search command line.
You can narrow your search results by selecting additional criteria from the filters, also known as facets, on the left side of the results page. Filters available for Senate executive communications include Congress, Chamber of Origin, Committee, and Communication Type. See Refining with Filters for more information.
Viewing Search Results
Search Results Display
When multiple communication records are returned from a search, the Search Results display includes:
Communication number - unique number assigned by the Senate Executive Clerk. Links to full display of single item.
Congressional Record Date - date when the communication appeared in the Congressional Record.
Committee - the Senate committee to which the communication was referred. When a communication is referred to multiple committees, as indicated by 'and other committees', all committees are listed in the single item display.
Congress - Congress during which the communication was received.
Abstract – brief description of the communication including the agency or other entity of origin.
Sort Order
When multiple items are returned, search results are sorted by default by number-descending (by Congress, document type, and communication number (descending order)).
Use the Sort by menu to select one of the following other sort orders:
Congressional Record Date – Newest to Oldest
Congressional Record Date – Oldest to Newest
Number - Ascending (by Congress, document type, and communication number (ascending order))
The order of document type is:
PM - Presidential Messages
EC - Executive Communications
POM - Petitions or Memorials
Single Item Display
Select an item to view from the search results list by clicking on the communication number. Each single item search result display includes when applicable:
Communication Number - unique number assigned by the Senate Executive Clerk.
Congress - Congress during which the communication was received.
Congressional Record date - date when the communication appeared in the Congressional Record.
Document Number – a House or Senate document number, e.g., S. Doc. 144-3. Present only when an official House or Senate document is transmitted.
Classification Code – if applicable, a communication may have one of the following designations: Classified (CL), Secret (SE), or Confidential (CO).
Abstract - brief description of the communication including the agency or other entity of origin.
Referred to Committee Date - date of referral to committee and the Senate committee or committees to which the communication was referred. Committees are listed in alphabetical order.
Navigation
Use arrows to move through your results. Use Back to Results to return to your latest search results page.
How to Obtain Copies
The document text accompanying Presidential Messages is often printed in the Congressional Record the day the communication is received, as is the text of many Petitions or Memorials. However, Executive Communications text is never included in the Congressional Record and can be very difficult to find. The actual documents are given to the Committee(s) listed in the communication record and generally are available only if either the respective Committee or the Executive Branch agency publishes them elsewhere.
Federal Register - the official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules, and Notices of Federal Agencies and Organizations as well as Executive Orders and other Presidential Documents.
Compilation of Presidential Documents - published daily via GPO by the Office of the Federal Register, NARA, these are the "official publications of materials released by the White House" since 1993.
White House Briefing Room - provides many presidential statements, speeches and proclamations. Especially good for very current items. Links to Executive Orders, consecutively numbered official documents through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the Federal Government.
