In-Person Research
If you have read through the Getting Started, What's Online, and Research Guide pages, and completed the preliminary research, then the next step is to visit the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
| Planning Your Research Visit | Rules of Access | Modern Congressional Records |
| Records Requiring an Appointment | Research in Washington, DC | Records in College Park, MD |
Planning Your Research Visit
Before planning an in-person research visit, you will need to know how your topic intersects with the U.S. Congress.
Specifically:
- What is the Congress or Congress range of your request?
- Which chamber of Congress is involved—House, Senate, or both?
- Which congressional committee(s) took up your topic and in which fashion, i.e. a bill, a hearing, an investigation?
- What are the specific bill or resolution numbers?
Once you've done this preliminary research step using the published sources outlined on the What's Online page, you should be equipped with the necessary information to tackle legislative records records onsite at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
We recommend that you conduct onsite research for records that are both unpublished and only available in our holdings. This includes legislative bill files and accompanying papers, the working papers of congressional committees, nomination, and treaty files etc.
Please contact the Center by email at legislative.archives@nara.gov before you plan your research visit. This will allow our staff to ensure the records you wish to consult are open and available for research.
Rules of Access
Before you visit, contact the Center to ensure your records are open and available.
The holdings of the Center for Legislative Archives are made available according to access policies set by the creator of the records. The Center holds both open and closed records. All unpublished U.S. House of Representative and U.S. Senate records are closed by default for 30 and 20 years respectively, and many records (e.g., investigative and nomination records) are closed for 50 years.
Many open records must also be screened for privacy and other restrictions before they can be served. Screening can be a time-consuming process—it can take one business day per two boxes (10 linear inches) of records. Please contact the Center by email at legislative.archives@nara.gov before a visit.
Note: the records of the legislative branch are not subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
Modern Congressional Records
Open, modern congressional records—defined as anything created after 1980—are not yet described in the National Archives Catalog, nor do we have robust finding aids yet developed. These records require a search by Center archivists to locate. After an initial research consultation, usually through email, an archivist from the Center will search for potentially responsive file units and boxes within our holdings, and then screen these records for access restrictions. This process can take days to weeks, depending on the request, which is why it is extremely important to contact the Center before your visit.
Please email us at legislative.archives@nara.gov if you're looking for modern congressional records. We are happy to work with you in advance of a research visit, and always appreciate a long lead time to work any required screening into our queue.
Records Requiring an Appointment
While an appointment in our research room is not generally a requirement, it is if you want to view our earliest records.
The records of the 2nd - 4th Congresses are not on microfilm; however, they are located in a secure vault and require advance notice to pull. In addition, one of our archivists must be present when you view these records in the research room. An appointment is necessary to ensure that these requirements are met.
The records of the 11th - 14th Congresses (House) and 12th - 14th Congresses (Senate) are also not on microfilm. You do not need an archivist with you to view these records; however, they are located in a secure vault and require advanced notice to pull, so an appointment is still needed.
Research at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC
The Center for Legislative Archives is located in the National Archives building in downtown Washington, DC. The research room is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Saturdays, Sundays, and Federal Holidays.
Please visit the A1 Textual Event Page to make an appointment. For directions and additional information about conducting in-person research, visit Information for Researchers at the National Archives at Washington, DC.
Legislative archivists are available for walk-in consultations Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and can pull open, previously screened legislative records from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The National Archives provides free access to several subscription databases through computers at National Archives facilities.
Records in College Park, MD
Most of the Center's records are located at the National Archives building in Washington, DC. However, some legislative records are made available through the Research Room in College Park, Maryland, including Publications of the U.S. Government (Record Group 287), Records of the General Accounting Office (Record Group 411), and most audio-visual records, such as photographs, sound recordings, and videos.
To access these records, contact the Research Room in College Park, Maryland.
A free shuttle bus provides access between the National Archives buildings in Washington, DC and College Park, MD.