Guide to the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989 (Record Group 233)
Chapter 11. Records of the Government Operations Committee and Its Predecessors
Table of Contents
Records of the Government Operations Committee and Its Predecessors, 1814-1988 from Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States
Committees discussed in this chapter:
- Public Expenditures (1814-80)
- Expenditures in the Navy Department (1816-1927)
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department (1816-1927)
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department (1816-1927)
- Expenditures in the State Department (1816-1927)
- Expenditures in the War Department (1816-1927)
- Expenditures on the Public Buildings (1816-1927)
- Expenditures in the Interior Department (1860-1927)
- Expenditures in the Justice Department (1874-1927)
- Expenditures in the Agriculture Department (1889-1927)
- Expenditures in the Commerce and Labor Departments (1905-13)
- Expenditures in the Commerce Department (1913-27)
- Expenditures in the Labor Department (1913-27)
- Expenditures in the Executive Department (1927-52)
- Government Operations (1952-68)
Records of the Committee on Expenditures on the Public Buildings (1816-1927)
11.52 Records for this committee are sparse, particularly after the 44th Congress (1875-77).
| Record Type | Volume | Dates (Congresses) |
| Minute Books | 1 volume | 1889-91 (51st) |
| Docket Books | 1 volume | 1815-41 (14th-26th) |
| Petitions and Memorials | 1 inch | 1825-27 (19th) |
| Committee Papers | 1 foot | 1815-23 (14th-17th), 1825-29 (19th-20th), 1835-41 (24th-26th), 1843-47 (28th-29th), 1853-55 (33d), 1875-77 (44th), 1907-09 (60th) |
| Total volume | 1 ft. and 2 vols. (5 in.) | |
| Committee Records Summary Table | ||
11.53 Petitions and memorials are virtually non-existent for this committee. The one petition in the records was submitted in 1826 by William J. Chaffee regarding his design for "ornamenting the pediment of the Capitol" (19A-G6.1).
11.54 About half of the committee papers are reports of the Commissioner of Public Buildings regarding expenditures between 1816 and 1846 on public buildings, primarily in Washington, DC. Included are reports relating to an 1817 plan for "warming" the public buildings (14A-C12.2) and the status of fire fighting equipment in Washington, DC in 1826 (19A-D7.3). A number of detailed reports and other records concern the White House and its furnishings between 1816 and 1840 (14A-C12.1, 15A-D13.1, 19A-D7.2, 26A-D7.1) and work done on the Capitol between 1816 and 1827 (14A-C12.1, 15A-D13.1, 17A-C8.1, 19A-D7.1).
11.55 A few committee papers relate to public buildings outside Washington, DC. Among these are an 1840 report on the branch mint at Charlotte, NC (26A-D7.2) and records from 1876 relating to the contract for the construction of the New York Post Office (44A-F12.1).
11.56 A bound volume of committee reports covers the period from February 18, 1817 to July 21, 1840.
Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989: Bicentennial Edition (Doct. No. 100-245). By Charles E. Schamel, Mary Rephlo, Rodney Ross, David Kepley, Robert W. Coren, and James Gregory Bradsher. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1989.
