records of Congress

After the hearings and debates end and Congress has adopted or rejected a piece of legislation, a nomination, or a treaty, the official records go to the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. There, archivists catalog, box, and open the records for research, subject to the rules of the Senate and House. Although congressional records are not included under the Freedom of Information Act (which sets the terms for access to executive branch records), most Senate records open automatically after 20 years, and House records after 30 years. Records involving national security and personal privacy are closed for as much as 50 years. Official records are those of the committees and support staff. Senators' and representatives' papers are considered their personal property. Although in the past many members of Congress destroyed their papers, today most members send their papers to home-state libraries and historical societies.

Before the National Archives opened in 1936, the records of Congress were stored haphazardly throughout the Capitol building. Conditions were often so bad that the documents deteriorated or were destroyed. Congressional documents include copies of bills and resolutions, transcripts of hearings, nominations, treaties, correspondence, and petitions that range from individual postcards to great rolls containing thousands of signatures.

Nineteenth-century clerks of Congress folded documents in thirds to fit within the pigeonholes of their desks and tied bundles of documents with red tape. “Cutting through the red tape” referred to removing the tape to find needed documents—and the expression is still used for getting something done in the bureaucracy. In recent years many records have been microfilmed, or they exist only in computers. Such technological advances both facilitate and complicate the jobs of those archivists who preserve, catalog, and make available for research the records of Congress.

Sources

• Herman J. Viola, The National Archives of the United States (New York: Abrams, 1984)