Congressional Research Service
The Congressional Research Service ( CRS ), also known as the Congress's think tank in the USA , is the public policy research agency of the United States Congress .
The CRS is a statutory agency within the Library of Congress . He works exclusively and directly for members of Congress and committees of Congress, and does so on a confidential and impartial basis. A similar institution in Germany is the Scientific Service of the Bundestag .
Around 900 employees work at the CRS, including lawyers, economists, librarians and scientists.
In fiscal 2007, the CRS received a budget of approximately $ 100,786,000 from Congress.
In addition to the CRS, there are two other 'congressional support agencies':
- The Congressional Budget Office - it provides Congress with information and reports on budgetary issues, programmatic issues, and analyzes depicting policy options, costs, and effects
- The Government Accountability Office assists Congress in monitoring government activities. For this purpose, there are expert hearings (“independent audits”), investigations (“investigations”) and evaluations of federal programs (“federal programs”).
The three agencies together employ over 4,000 people.
CRS reports are highly regarded and recognized as in-depth, accurate, objective and timely.
In 2018 the US Congress passed the so-called Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, which obliged the Library of Congress to make CRS reports available to the public in the future. While private individuals had to ask senators or congressmen to make a report available to them before this law was passed, all CRS reports can now be accessed via a specially created website and viewed and downloaded free of charge.
CRS reports are also available to congress members and agency staff on the intranet of the congress and the three agencies.
Web links
English
- Congressional Research Service Official Website
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) at UCB Libraries GovPubs
- Internet Archive collection of sites that publish CRS reports : Website on CRS reports including documents from OpenCRS, UNT, FAS, Thurgood Marshall Law Library and others.
- Guide to CRS Reports on the Web
- Source Watch website about CRS.
- University of North Texas Libraries Congressional Research Service Reports archive
- Federation of American Scientists Congressional Research Service Reports archive
- Franklin Pierce Law Center CRS Reports archive
- United States Department of State Foreign Press Center CRS Reports archive
- CRS reports Internet database for accessing published CRS reports
Footnotes
- ↑ Elizabeth Williamson: You'd Know if You Were Congressional . Washingtonpost.com. March 21, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
- ↑ a b The Congressional Research Service and the American Legislative Process (2008; PDF; 155 kB)
- ↑ Congressional Research Service FY2007 Annual Report. ((PDF)) Congressional Research Service Home Page, April 18, 2008, SS 47 , archived from the original on August 1, 2008 ; accessed on November 4, 2014 .
- ↑ Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. In: Congress.GOV. Retrieved February 3, 2019 .
- ^ CRS Reports. Retrieved February 3, 2019 .