Indeed, they are widely available in hard copy to Washington insiders and lobbyists. But after the FAS Space Policy Project posted a dozen or so CRS publications with the CRS logo on the FAS web site, obtained with the assistance of a congressional staffer, a CRS official sent an email message to project director John Pike to complain. It is essential that we maintain our ability to serve the Congress well as an objective, non-partisan resource. We therefore cannot risk our products being falsely perceived as being associated with any outside organization, no matter how worthy. But while this may reasonably apply to internal memoranda and special resources prepared for individual members, it does not apply to finished products like CRS reports and issue briefs, which are in any event releaseable to the public upon request to a member of Congress.
Life is hard.
But it is at least imaginable that CRS products might benefit from external critiques. Besides, most people in official Washington are adept at not returning phone calls. CRS reports and issue briefs are a unique resource that can help citizens comprehend the intellectual underpinnings of congressional decisionmaking. They encompass almost every topic of current policy importance in a relatively concise form. Unlike most of its peer competitors, CRS generally abstains from drawing specific conclusions about policy issues that are in dispute.