Info About Congress

The United States House of Representatives is the lower house of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper house. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The House’s composition is established by Article One of the United States Constitution.

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which, along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—constitutes the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

Congress.gov is the online database of United States Congress legislative information. Congress.gov is a joint project of the Library of Congress, the House, the Senate, and the Government Publishing Office.

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.

govinfo is a service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO), which is a Federal agency in the legislative branch. govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.

C-SPAN is a public service created by the American Cable Television Industry to provide C-SPAN’s audience access to the live gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and to other forums where public policy is discussed, debated, and decided–all without editing, commentary or analysis and with a balanced presentation of points of view

My Congressional District gives you quick and easy access to selected statistics collected by the U.S. Census Bureau through the American Community Survey (ACS) and County Business Patterns (CBP). The ACS provides detailed demographic, social, economic, and housing statistics every year for the nation’s communities. CBP provides annual statistics for businesses with paid employees at a detailed geography and industry level.

The Clerk of the U. S. House of Representatives is an officer of the U. S. House of Representatives, whose primary duty is to act as the chief record-keeper for the House. Along with the other House officers, the Clerk is elected every two years when the House organizes for a new Congress. The majority and minority caucuses nominate candidates for the House officer positions after the election of the Speaker.

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

The House’s committees consider bills and issues and oversee agencies, programs, and activities within their jurisdictions.

Due to the high volume and complexity of its work, the Senate divides its tasks among 20 permanent committees, four joint committees, and occasionally temporary committees. The Senate has established guidelines for committees, but each committee adopts its own rules and procedures.