Open Access To Congressional Research Service Reports

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The Law Librarians blog posted about new proposed legislation that will make it easier to access the valuable Congressional Research Service reports.

The Equal Access to Congressional Research Service Reports Act of 2016 (S 2639 and HR 4702) directs the GPO to establish and maintain a public website containing CRS Reports, and an index, that are searchable, sortable, and downloadable (including downloadable in bulk), for which no fee may be charged. Coverage includes CRS Authorization of Appropriations Products, Appropriations Products, and any other written CRS product containing CRS research or CRS analysis available for general congressional access on the CRS Congressional Intranet. Coverage excludes any custom product or service prepared in direct response to a request for custom analysis or research and not available for general congressional access on the CRS Congressional Intranet.

 Any researcher knows about the treasure trove of information available in the CRS reports, and it is a shame that they are not more readily available in a usable format.

For more information, see this post at Information Today.

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