Debates are speeches and floor remarks that occur in the House and Senate. This can include remarks about pending legislation and proposed amendments. Since 1874, these have been published in the Congressional Record, which is issued daily when Congress is in session. At the end of a session, the daily editions are compiled, edited, and bound in volumes constituting a permanent edition. For older Congresses, debates were published in:
See also:
Debates printed in the Congressional Record are cited using volume and page number.
See Bluebook Rule 13.5. Example:
152 Cong. Rec. H2,107 (daily ed. May 4, 2006).
If you need to cite the Bound Edition and you only have a Daily Edition citation, you can either do a full-text search for unique terms, or try HeinOnline's lookup tool:
For most UCI researchers who are looking for a PDF of a Congressional Record page, HeinOnline is the best bet because it has its full text, plus that of the predecessor publications. However, HeinOnline's search options are somewhat limited. Researchers who want to search the full text of the Congressional Record should review the other options below.
HeinOnline is a premier online database containing more than 173 million pages and 270,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline bridges an important research gap by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,700 law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.
Extensive collection of federal legislative history documents, including bills, hearing testimony, congressional records, and CRS reports.
