Looking for in-depth, expert research on current issues? CRS Reports are a great resource! The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is an arm of the Library of Congress that exists to keep members of Congress informed about issues related to pending legislation. CRS staff are subject experts in a variety of fields and they produce nonpartisan reports that relate these issues in an easily-digestible format.  

CRS Reports can be hard to find. The federal government doesn't currently make them widely available to the public: you must request a CRS Report by title (or report number) from a member of Congress. However, you can find CRS Reports through subscription databases (like ProQuest), for some vendors for a fee, or for free from the following collections. 

CRS Reports on many subjects:

• University of North Texas (scroll down for subject access): http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/

• Stanford’s CRS Collection on Archive-It: http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1078

• OpenCRS: https://opencrs.com/

Collections with specific topic areas:

• U.S. Department of State: Foreign Press Center: http://fpc.state.gov/c18185.htm

• Federation of American Scientists: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/

• National Council for Science and the Environment: http://www.ncseonline.org/programs/science-policy/crs-reports

• National Agricultural Law Center: http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/crs/

• Thurgood Marshall Law Library: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/index.html

• University of New Hampshire: School of Law: http://www.ipmall.info/hosted_resources/crs_reports.asp

• GlobalSecurity.org: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/crs/

• Information Warfare Site (2001-2004 only): http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/crs/

Subscription database for CRS Reports:

• ProQuest Congressional (limited to use by Columbia University affiliates)
  • in the “limit to” section, select “CRS Reports 1916 – Present”
  • https://resolver.library.columbia.edu/ANH6180

Search strategy for finding other CRS Reports:

• http://zfacts.com/p/576.html

More about CRS Reports…

This presentation talks more about CRS, summarizes past legislation that attempted to make CRS Reports public, and how to write your member of congress to request a report. For more information about CRS Reports, see this OpenCongress.org page: http://bit.ly/CRSReports