Primary Sources Access – Foundation (Plan E): Congressional Research Digital Collection

Much of the real work of Congress is performed not on the floor of the House or Senate, but in the hearing rooms and offices of hundreds of congressional committees and subcommittees. There, legislative policy is debated and developed, informed to a large extent by analysis found in Committee Prints and CRS reports. Both help legislators formulate policy decisions and provide to the public an idea of how Congress comes to its policy-making conclusions. Where the documents diverge is in their point of view. CRS reports provide an impartial view of the topic at hand while Committee Prints set forth partisan viewpoints. By combining the two complementary document types into one collection, the ProQuest Congressional Research Digital Collection allows users to consider policy decision from a fuller view, giving their research more contextual relevance. In addition, this collection provides researchers with clearly stated summaries of many issues of the day, and can be used as a jumping-off point to begin research on a wide variety of topics in almost all academic disciplines.