Congressional Directory: Helpful Hints

The Congressional Directory is the official directory of 
the U.S. Congress, prepared by the Joint Committee on 
Printing (JCP). It presents short biographies of each 
member of the Senate and House, listed by state or 
district, and additional data, such as committee 
memberships, terms of service, administrative assistants 
and/or secretaries, and room and telephone numbers. It also 
lists officials of the courts, military establishments, and 
other Federal departments and agencies, including D.C. 
government officials, governors of states and territories, 
foreign diplomats, and members of the press, radio, and 
television galleries.

GPO Access contains directories for the 104th (1995-96), 
105th (1997-98), and 106th (1999-2000) Congresses, as well 
as the Interim Congressional Directory for the 105th 
Congress, which is an online-only revision of the directory 
for that Congress. The database for the current Congress is 
updated irregularly, as changes are provided by the JCP. 
Documents are available as ASCII text and Portable Document 
Format (PDF) files.

Browse the Congressional Directory

The browse feature allows you to view sections from the 
Congressional Directory for the 106th Congress and the 
Interim Congressional Directory for the 105th Congress. 
Each browse table displays the title, file format, file 
size, and corresponding page number(s) of each section in 
the print version of the Congressional Directory. Simply 
click on a link to open the specified document. Documents 
are available in two formats: ASCII text and PDF.

Identification Codes

In the list that displays your query results, the title of 
each Congressional Directory document is preceded by an 
identification code. The identification code consists of 
two elements: a database abbreviation and the number of the 
Congress being referenced. For example, in the listing 
"[Cong. Dir. 105] PRESS GALLERIES," "Cong. Dir." stands for 
Congressional Directory, 105 references the 105th Congress, 
and "Press Galleries" is the title of the document.

Sample Searches (5)

The following sample searches are provided as guides to 
general types of searches in the Congressional Directory. 
They are performed in the Congressional Directory for the 
105th Congress. For the sake of space, only the top three 
hits in each results list are included with each example 
below.

Note: The results of these sample searches are described as 
they appear on the Web interface. The display of the 
results may vary for users of the WAIS client and SWAIS 
software.

1. Search by Member's Name

This type of search returns documents based on the name of 
a member of Congress, including senior staff members and 
senior agency officials. A member's name may not be 
consistent throughout the directory; therefore, you must 
search for known variations of her/his name in order to 
receive a comprehensive results list.

Query:  (Bill or William) adj Thomas
Results:        [Cong. Dir. 105] CONGRESSIONAL ADVISORY BOARDS, 
               COMMISSIONS, GROUPS 
                [Cong. Dir. 105] JOINT COMMITTEES
                [Cong. Dir. 105] STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE 
                   HOUSE 

The above query returns documents that list this member in 
two different manners. He is mentioned as William Thomas in 
the documents entitled "Congressional Advisory Boards, 
Commissions, Groups" and "Joint Committees," but his name 
appears as Bill Thomas in the document entitled "Standing 
Committees of the House." Thus, a query that specified only 
one of his first names would have returned an incomplete 
list of relevant documents. Depending on how common a 
Congressperson's name is, you may be able to search 
successfully on her/his last name only.

2. Search by Member's Name and Committee

This type of search returns documents based on both the 
name of a member of Congress and a committee name.

Query:  Feinstein and "foreign relations"
Results:        [Cong. Dir. 105] STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE 
                   SENATE
                [Cong. Dir. 105] CALIFORNIA
                [Cong. Dir. 105] ASSIGNMENTS OF SENATORS TO 
                   COMMITTEES

Common committee documents include "Assignments of 
Representatives/Senators to Committees," which is an 
alphabetical listing of members of Congress and the 
committees and subcommittees to which they have been 
assigned; "Standing Committees of the House/Senate," which 
is an alphabetical listing of committees/subcommittees and 
their members; and "Select and Special Committees of the 
House/Senate," which is an alphabetical listing of select 
and special committees that is organized similar to the 
listing of standing committees. The documents that are 
titled by U.S. state contain information about the 
congressional members from that state, including the 
committees on which they have served.

3. Search by State

This type of search returns documents based on U.S. state.

Query:  Oregon
Results:        [Cong. Dir. 105] OREGON
                [Cong. Dir. 105] FOREIGN DIPLOMATIC OFFICES IN 
                   THE UNITED STATES
                [Cong. Dir. 105] OREGON--Congressional 
                   Districts--(5 Districts)

Documents that are titled by U.S. state contain the entire 
entry for that state from the Congressional Directory. They 
include biographical information, office locations, and 
contact information for the senators and representatives 
from each district. For an explanation of the 
"Congressional Districts" documents, see the following 
example.

4. Search by District

This type of search returns documents based on 
congressional district. If you are interested in one state, 
you must include both the state name and the phrase 
"congressional district*" in your query. If you enter only 
the phrase "congressional district*", relevant documents 
for each state will be returned. It is best to truncate the 
word "district," because it may be singular or plural in a 
document, depending on how many congressional districts a 
state has.

Query:  Mississippi and "congressional district*"
Results:        [Cong. Dir. 105] MISSISSIPPI--Congressional 
                   Districts--(5 Districts)
                [Cong. Dir. 105] STATE DELEGATIONS - 105TH 
                   CONGRESS
                [Cong. Dir. 105] CONTENTS

The documents that are titled by U.S. state and 
congressional districts, such as the first hit in the above 
example, contain a map of that state with the borders of 
its congressional districts. This type of document is 
retrievable only as an PDF file.

5. Search by Agency

This type of search returns the entry for an agency in the 
Congressional Directory, as well as other documents that 
mention that agency.

Query:  "Department of Defense"
Results:        [Cong. Dir. 105] DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
                [Cong. Dir. 105] CONTENTS
                [Cong. Dir. 105] JUDICIARY

The entry for an agency, such as the first hit in the above 
example, includes names, titles, office locations, and 
contact information for the officials of that agency.

Last updated: 22 September 1999