Congressional reports can be cool
As the January 6th Commission is negotiated, explore the findings of prior commissions.
Following the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, historians and political scientists, members of Congress, national security experts, and a litany of advocates called on Congress to establish a congressional commission to uncover and detail the events of, and leading up to, the terrorist attack.
The goal of congressional commissions are seemingly simple. In this case, members of Congress would work together to establish facts about the January 6 insurrection and publish a report of their findings. Commissions are vital to establishing facts and official reports, but this responsibility is particularly essential when dealing with an event motivated by conspiracy theories and misinformation.
But like much else in Congress, political gamesmanship has derailed important progress. Republican leaders, eager to rinse their hands of an event led by a Republican president, want the commission to look at political violence more generally, rather just the events of January 6. The other point of contention was the partisan makeup—while leaders originally proposed a Democratic-majority commission, they have since shifted to a fully bipartisan panel (compromise!).
Fortunately for leaders, a blueprint for these type of commissions exist—most notably and recently, the commission following the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. The 9/11 Commission was bipartisan, focusing specifically on the miscommunication of intelligence groups and federal officials—not terrorism at large. (Find a detailed CRS overview of the 9/11 and other recent commissions here).
This week, Speaker Pelosi tapped two members—a Republican and a Democrat—to develop a serious bipartisan proposal to get the commission underway. Their proposal will likely be voted on next week. As we await the (hopeful) establishment of this commission, this post will provide an overview of how to find the reports produced by these commissions and select committees.
Who are congressional reports for?
First, they’re shared with other members of Congress and the government. But most of them are also released to the public! Topics of recent commissions and select committees have ranged from 9/11 to the economic challenges of modern farming, how to improve Congress, and CARES Act oversight.
These reports are official government documents, which hold great weight for researchers and government officials—think of them as “primary sources” from the days of writing research papers. Thus, the words and findings of these reports have both present-day and historical value.
Where do you find congressional reports?
Congressional reports, and other U.S. government reports, are published through the Government Publishing Office (GPO). GPO also publishes the congressional record (floor speeches and official statements), as well as committee documents, and documents from the executive and judicial branch. Today, GPO stores their documents at govinfo.gov. (GPO=publisher, GovInfo=the website used to store GPO documents).
You can access documents two ways: first, indirectly though www.gpo.gov. The easiest way to look around is via the search bar at the top right of the page, but you can also poke around the home page (scroll down for various document types).
Let’s use the 9/11 commission report as an example. I’m just going to search “9/11” — easy enough.
The results provide GPO-produced documents, namely press releases from GPO, as well as a link at the top for “Federal government documents” via govinfo.gov. The GPO links are not updated—so the press releases from 2004 are unlikely to have working links anymore. However, more recent reports will be more easily searchable from this website.
So, let’s head to the more complex, but more direct, govinfo.gov. As you can see below, there are a lot more ways to tailor your search.
Searching “9/11” without any specifications will result in any congressional document that uses the term or date 9/11—floor speeches, court documents, committee reports. That is… going to be a lot of documents. So instead, let’s search “9/11 commission” to specify documents produced by the commission. You can also clarify that you are only interested in certain authors or date ranges.
But, voila! When we search 9/11 commission, we find exactly what we want at the top of the results—their final report. If we scroll down, we can also see related documents to the 9/11 commission, like resolutions that established the commission or members of Congress talking about their findings.
You can download the PDF by clicking the PDF button and get to reading. The details button will provide you an overview of publishing details (like date and location of publication), as well as a table of contents.
While not every report is available to the public, particularly those regarding national security or intelligence, most of them are or will be made public after an embargo period.
It’s important to remember these reports are written by members of Congress—so unlike CRS reports, they can be partisan, particularly when the commission is not bipartisan. But, they do provide original research by members of Congress and their staff (who often have subpoena power), so the findings are worthwhile for the official and historical value alone.
Furthermore, GovInfo and GPO provide you with direct access to government documents beyond Congress. While the site can be complex and overwhelming, it is free, and a great resource for those looking for official documents and historical data. But as always, reach out if you need help—or you have questions about this or other topics. Happy searching, and happy reading!