ONLINE

Browse House of Representatives and Senate committee hearings from the 85th Congress onwards here.

Committee hearings contain the transcripts of testimony given before the congressional committees. See Congressional committee publications for information about current and former committees.

Library holdings

When you have identified a Committee title, an index may help to identify specific hearings and dates. You can request indexes from the Catalogue; see this list of indexes.

You can also use the Catalogue standard search to find documents published by a Committee. Example searches are:

Aging, Select committee hearing

Public Works committee hearing

Un-American Activities committee hearing

SEARCH TIPS:

Use the name of the committee and the word ‘hearing’ in your search.

Select the ‘Author’ link in the Catalogue record to open a list of other documents from the committee.

Case Study

A researcher is looking for a House Judiciary Committee hearing entitled 'Civil Rights, Part 2' (it is Y4.J89/1:88/4/pt.2) regarding the Civil Rights legislation introduced by President Kennedy in June 1963

Y4.J89/1:88/4/pt.2 is the SUDOC number; however the National Library does not hold this SUDOC number separately on microfiche.

In the Catalogue search, use the following search term hearings "Committee on the Judiciary" Choose the record for the House Committee.

Request 1963, 88th Congress; 'Civil Rights, Part 2' which is included in this volume. Transcripts for June are on pages 1371 – 1572.

The Presidential message from Kennedy of June 19, 1963 is inserted on pages 1446-1455. This is part of the Hearing of June 26, 1963 (pages 1371-1455).

BACKGROUND

PUBLIC HEARINGS

If the bill is of sufficient importance, the committee may set a date for a hearing. Most hearings are conducted in public, and may call upon concerned or expert witnesses to testify.

A transcript of the testimony taken at a public hearing is made available for inspection in the office of the clerk of the committee. Frequently, the complete transcript is printed and distributed widely by the committee.

See Chapter VI. Consideration by Committee of How our Laws are Made for more information

CHECK THE RECORD

Many United States Congressional Hearing papers are available online. To access these through the Library Catalogue, find the Catalogue record then look for ‘Online versions’. If there is an online version, you can choose a PDF or HTML link.

For example, take a look at Competitiveness and innovation on the Committee's 50th anniversary with Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft [microform] : hearing before the Committee on Science and Technology, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, March 12, 2008

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Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive including the records of people who have passed away.

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