Students often come to the Reference Desk with a citation to a House or Senate Report, and then want to know what they are looking for.

House Reports and Senate Reports are reports produced by congressional committees to explain why they are recommending that a piece of legislation be approved by that chamber of Congress. A report will typically contain the text of the bill as it was amended by the committee, a statement of the bill's purpose and history, and a section-by-section analysis of the bill. Committe reports are valuable sources of information when trying to determine legislative intent.

Congressional committee reports are published in the Serial Set, a compilation of House and Senate Reports and Documents. Serial Set volumes are ordered by the Congress and session their documents were published in. If you are trying to find pre-1995 committee reports, you will usually need to know which volume of the Serial Set the report you are looking for was published in. These two references can help:

CIS U.S. Serial Set Index (covers 1817 through 1969) (call number: Z1223 .Z9 C65 1975 Law Ref.) 

U.S. Congressional Serial Set: Numerical Lists of Documents and Reports (covers 1957 to present)

Here's a list, arranged by year, of the most accessible places for Santa Clara Law students to find the original House and Senate Reports, whether in print or pdf. Note that reports published from 1923-1994 will be difficult to find online in Google Books due to Google's wildly restrictive interpretation of copyright law. Also, if your report concerns a bill that was signed into law, there are other sources that may reproduce the report or its text. If you speak to a librarian, we will be glad to help you find these.

Pre-1923

Harvard Library's collection of digitized Serial Set volumes (Serial #s 1-8212)

Hathi Trust's collection of digitized Serial Set volumes (Serial #s 3265-9660)

Note that both Harvard and the Hathi Trust have incomplete digitized collections. If you need a report from a Serial Set volume that they haven't digitized, I would recommend that you go to the San Jose State University/San Jose Public Library (SJSU/SJPL) King Library in San Jose to use their digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Another option would be to use the University Library's microcard collection of Serial Set volumes (call number: J66 .A49 ARS Microform Collection), although using and making copies from the microcard will be a tedious process.

1923-1963

My recommendation would be to go to the SJSU/SJPL King Library in San Jose to use their digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set at the SJSU/SJPL King Library in San Jose. Another option would be to use the University Library's microcard collection of Serial Set volumes (call number: J66 .A49 ARS Microform Collection), although using and making copies from the microcard will be a tedious process. 

1963-1980

My recommendation would be to use the bound Serial Set volumes at the University Library (call number: Y 1.1/2: ARS Government Documents). These cover serial volumes 12582 through 13359. For materials before serial 12582, see the section above on 1923-1963 reports. For materials after serial 13359, see the section below on 1980-1994 reports.

The digital U.S. Congressional Serial Set at the SJSU/SJPL King Library in San Jose covers reports through 1976. The CIS microfiche collection at the Heafey Law Library covers reports from 1970 onwards (call number: KF49 .C62 Law Microform). These reports will be listed in OSCAR, the library catalog.

1980-1994

The CIS microfiche collection at the Heafey Law Library (call number: KF49 .C62 Law Microform) will probably be the most convenient place for you to find reports. These reports are listed in OSCAR, the library catalog. If you are dealing with a lengthy report that you need to browse or make copies of, then you may want to check the catalog of the SJSU/SJPL King Library in San Jose to see if they have a print copy of the report. 

1995-present

Government Printing Office's Federal Digital System (FDsys) (Choose "Congressional Reports")

Library of Congress' THOMAS system (Choose "Committee Reports)

The Heafey Law Library also has reports from 1995 onwards in our CIS microfiche collection (call number: KF49 .C62 Law Microform). These reports are listed in OSCAR, the library catalog.

(updated 1/29/2010 to include link to Hathi Trust)