Congressional Records

The infrastructure of Capitol Hill provides access to loads of information - whether you have sources up there or not.

You can get the text, sponsors, analysis and status of bills and amendments online, as well as learn how members of Congress voted on them. You can get the annual financial disclosure forms that provide a snapshot of politicians' finances. And you can find out how members of Congress used their office budgets, right down to how much they spent on bottled water, by obtaining their quarterly statement of disbursements.

There's plenty more. Here's an overview of some of the sources and offices up there that have been helpful to me.

Location

House and Senate Press Galleries

You have all been there. These places are set up to help us - and to help members get on TV and in the newspaper. The staff can tell you what's on the floor and when votes are expected (best time to catch members), and explain some of the more arcane procedural moves taking place. The Press Galleries also are home to politicians' press conferences, dozens of their press releases, copies of newspapers from around the country and, on the House side at least, party documents that explain what's in a bill or in amendments to a bill.

The House and Senate both have three separate galleries: one for daily newspaper reporters, one for reporters at magazines, newsletters, non-daily newspapers, and online publications, and a third for radio and TV reporters.

The web site is www.house.gov/daily/hpg.htm. Some of what you can find there:

House votes
The House schedule
Statistical breakdowns of the distribution of seats by party
Congressional salaries
Fact sheets on minorities
Women and freshmen in the House
Links to Web pages of the Dem and GOP leadership and much more.

Office of Public Records

This is the official public records office for the Senate. You can get senators' financial disclosure forms as well as their campaign finance forms. Call ahead and they'll copy them for you. Be sure to ask how much it will cost. The staff there refer questions about who has to file what and when to the Select Committee on Ethics, 202-224-2981.

House Clerk's Office

I have only dealt with the Legislative Resource Center, 202-226-5200, which is the part of the clerk's office that maintains the public records. You can find the LRC in room B-106 I the basement of the Cannon Building, where the tunnel from the Capitol meets the Cannon and Longworth Buildings.

These guys have the financial disclosure forms for House members. They also can provide you with books detailing the quarterly spending of all House offices, or give you access to photocopy them. And this is the place were members file reports detailing gifts and travel costs provided by nongovernmental sources. House members are required to submit samples of their franked mass mailings, so you can see those here, too. The staff is friendly, but they get swamped on certain days of the year, such when personal financial disclosure forms come in in mid-May.

Tips for Tracking Down Senators and House Members

In general, the best way to catch members is to show up near the House or Senate chamber when they are taking record votes. They all have to leave their offices and dugouts to cast their votes.

In the Senate, the best day to catch a Democratic senator is Thursday, when the Senate Dems have their weekly policy lunches (usually from 1:00 p.m. to 2 p.m.).  Go to the second floor on the Senate side. Reporters congregate outside the elevators since the Democrats eat in a room near there.

Republican senators have their policy lunches on Tuesdays (also from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.) To around the corner by the Ohio Clock, where a clump of reporters will be. You'll know you are there because microphones and TV cameras will be set up at the end of the hall. That's where the party leaders stand up and pontificate on issues of the day after the lunches. But you can catch the rank-and-file members as they are walking to and from lunch.

On other days, you can usually catch senators near the second floor elevators as they come and go to cast votes. The other reporters are friendly. Just ask anyone staking out the scene whether they've seen your guy yet.

Also, on the western side of the Senate chamber, which, remember, is on the second floor, you'll find a small antechamber with a guard or two there. If you are looking for a senator, you can write down your name and organization and one of these guys will go in and let the senator know you are looking for him.  Frankly, it's usually just easier to catch them by the elevators.

In the House, head to the Speaker's Lobby outside of the House chamber on the second floor of the Capitol. If you are having trouble finding it, one of the Capitol Police can point the way.

During votes, reporters congregate here to catch members as they go in and out (the members' bathroom is nearby and the pols also come out to make phone calls and smoke cigars). In the center of a room is a concierge-style desk where you can fill out a card with your name, organization and the House member you are looking for. One of the people staffing the desk will go in and look for the member for you. Sometimes these guys can be a bit surly; it always helps to smile and say please.

A word of warning: you can't talk on your cell phone in the Speaker's lobby. And you aren't supposed to use a tape recorder there, although you can usually get away with running a tape if you and your source stand over by the floor-to-ceiling mirror on one side of the room.

It's also worth finding out whether members of your state delegation get together for lunch or breakfast where you'd be able to catch them.

THOMAS

http://thomas.loc.gov/
A brief word about THOMAS, a legislative web site that is a service of the Library of Congress. Most folks probably know about it already. But it is an invaluable tool for researching current and past legislation, including the text of bills and amendments, votes on legislation, and a searchable archive of the Congressional Record. You can look up things from your desk in minutes that reporters in the pre-Internet era must have spent hours on. Click on the About THOMAS tab on the left of the homepage  to see a good primer on what you can dig up on the site.

Does this agency's information need updating? programs@nationalpress.org