#75: CIVICS 101: The Legislative Branch
Q&A #75: Are the proceedings of Congress published and preserved?
Our American Government
Our American Government is a small book published by the House of Representatives for citizens and those who seek a greater understanding of the American interpretation of democracy. It follows a question-and-answer format and covers a broad range of topics dealing with the three branches of our Government, the electoral process, and the role of political parties.
The Savvy Citizen is reproducing the 169 questions-and-answers through a series of posts called Civics 101. Each post will contain the Q&A as well as some additional commentary to add historical context, fun facts, or anything we believe will add to our collective understanding of these topics.
Think of it as your adult Civics class but without the test!
Let’s keep at it.
SECTION: The Legislative Branch: The Congress
Congressional Rules and Procedures
Q&A #75: Are the proceedings of Congress published and preserved?
Each House, by constitutional requirement, keeps a Journal of its proceedings. The Senate maintains and publishes a legislative journal and an executive journal. The latter contains proceedings related to the Senate’s responsibilities for approving treaties and nominations. When the Senate sits as a court of impeachment, it keeps a separate journal of its proceedings. The executive journal is published annually.
The Journals do not report debates; they only report the bare parliamentary proceedings of each Chamber. In addition, the House Journal contains minimal information about actions taken by the House when meeting as a Committee of the Whole, because any action taken there is not official unless and until it is ratified by the full House.
For a public record of the debates, there have been a succession of reports, overlapping in part, as follows: Annals of Congress (1789–1824), Register of Debates (1824–37), Congressional Globe (1833–73), and finally and currently the Congressional Record (1873 to the present).
The Congressional Record contains a stenographic record of everything said on the floor of both Houses, including rollcall votes on all questions. Members are permitted to edit and revise the transcripts of their spoken remarks. An appendix contains material not spoken on the floor but inserted by permission—the so-called ‘‘extensions of remarks.’’ It also carries a brief resume of the congressional activities of the previous day, as well as a future legislative program and a list of scheduled committee hearings.
Since 1979 in the House and 1986 in the Senate, floor sessions have been televised. Videotape copies of House and Senate Chamber activities are preserved and available for research use at the Library of Congress and at the National Archives.
My Thoughts
Remember that the above was written in 2003. Given the advance of technology, the Congressional Record is now available online. You can view everything on Congress.gov here, including signing up for daily email alerts here.
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Back next time with Q&A #76: What are joint sessions and joint meetings?
Meanwhile, don’t forget that we’re organizing the post links on a single page available here.
xo,
Kelley for the Savvy Citizen Team
April 7, 2025