Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a research agency of Congress and writes reports at Congress' request. These short reports (usually 10-40 pages long) cover recent topics of concern. This week brings us reports on the supreme court, homeland security, Iran, and more. Although these reports are in the public domain, there is no central database available to the public. To get a copy of a CRS report you can request it from your senator or representative. This list is compiled from CRS reports discovered by Secrecy News:

• Supreme Court Nominations: Senate Floor Procedure and Practice, 1789-2009
• Inherently Governmental Functions and Department of Defense Operations: Background, Issues, and Options for Congress
• Federal Rulemaking: The Role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
• Homeland Security Department: FY2010 Request for Appropriations
• Iran’s 2009 Presidential Elections

Interested in historical CRS reports? If you are here at the Boulder campus, check out the LexisNexis Congressional database, which has reports back to 1916.

Not on campus, but still want access to additional reports? The library has a guide linking to various additional sources of CRS reports.