Congress is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Nevertheless, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have enacted their own rules and have allowed substantial public access to their proceedings and records. You can obtain access to congressional debates and other proceedings, but you need to obtain gallery passes from the office of your Senator or Representative. In addition, networks like C-Span televise and archive a large percentage of floor debates. You also may observe congressional committee meetings, notice of which is posted online. The congressional press galleries offer increased access and support services to members of the press who obtain the proper credentials, but the galleries place limitations on who can qualify for credentials. Finally, the U.S. government's own online portals provide congressional information and documents, and private organizations have developed fantastic tools for finding and organizing this information. We provide links to many of these resources below.
The galleries of the House and the Senate are open to the public whenever either body is in session, but gallery passes are required. You can obtain gallery passes from the office of your Senator or Representative (usually, any member can provide passes to both houses). There are three Senate office buildings and three House office buildings; to find the Senators and Representatives for your state, visit the Senate directory or the House directory.
Under limited circumstances, the galleries may be closed to the public. When the Senate discusses any business which, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer must clear the galleries and keep the doors closed for the duration of the discussion. See Senate Rule XXI. The House galleries may be closed when the Speaker, a member, a delegate, or a resident commissioner indicates that he or she will deliver communications that ought to be kept secret, or when the President sends confidential communications to the House. See House Rule XVII, para. 9 (scroll down).
Public access to congressional committees is an important part of government transparency. Committee meetings and hearings generally are open to the public, but members of a committee may vote to close a hearing or meeting under limited circumstances. See Senate Rule XXVI(5)(b) and House Rule XI(g)(1)(2) (scroll down).
Senate Committees
As a general rule, Senate committee meetings are open to the public. Senate committees may close a meeting if the matter to be discussed would:
Senate committees must give public notice of their hearings at least one week in advance. The notice must give the date, place, and subject matter of the hearing. See Senate Rule XXVI(4)(a). The Senate Rules do not specify where committees must post this notice, but as a matter of practice they will do so on their websites and in the Congressional Record. For links to Senate committee websites, see the Senate Committee Portal.
Finally, Senate committees and subcommittees must make publicly available through the Internet a video recording, audio recording, or transcript of any meeting not later than twenty-one business days after the meeting occurs. See Senate Rule XXVI(5)(e)(2)(A).
House Committees
As a general rule, House committee hearings and meetings are open to the public. House committees may vote to close a meeting or hearing if disclosure of matters to be considered would endanger national security, would compromise sensitive law enforcement information, would tend to defame, degrade, or incriminate any person, or otherwise would violate a law or rule of the House. They must announce the date, place, and subject matter of hearings to the public at least a week in advance in the Daily Digest and on their websites. For links to House committee websites, see the House Committee Portal.
House Rules impose no obligation to post transcripts or audio and video recordings of meetings online, but lobbying efforts are underway to try to change that.
Additional Resources for Committees
Members of the media in possession of proper press credentials are allowed access to the press galleries. Each house administers three galleries, one for press (meaning newspapers), one for periodical press, and one for radio and television. These galleries provide increased access to lawmakers and their staffs, and include workspaces and telephones for press use. Gallery staff will assist reporters and answer phones to take messages for the press while congressional proceedings are going on. The press is also given access to official transcripts, notes, and logs of congressional proceedings, and when lawmakers want to issue press releases, copies are generally handed out to everyone in the press gallery.
Senate Galleries
The Senate's three galleries are:
House Galleries
The House of Representative's three galleries are:
Each has its own credentialing process. For example, the Senate Press Gallery requires that the reporter reside in Washington. The Senate Periodical Press Gallery requires that the periodical in question provide coverage of Washington issues on a continuing basis. A common requirement is that the reporter's organization not be engaged in lobbying activities. The House Press and Radio-Television Galleries advise applicants to go through their Senate counterparts for membership. In contrast, the House Periodical Press Gallery credentials its own members as well as its Senate counterpart, and maintains a list of recognized periodicals. See each gallery's web page for their particular applications and restrictions.
The Periodical Press Galleries may be the closest fit for most online publishers. The House application is available online and states that the process can take up to six months. See its Rules and Regulations for details.
The procedures for the Senate Periodical Press Gallery are a bit more ambiguous. It provides two similar but not identical "Rules" pages. One instructs applicants to apply through the House Periodical Press Gallery, and the other instructs applicants to apply through the Senate.
The Open House Project has an excellent entry that details the procedure bloggers and online journalists have gone through to obtain membership in the congressional press galleries. It also describes the battles that have been fought to secure the right of online media to gain access to Congress, including the story about WorldNetDaily's eventually successful fight for credentials.
Because Congress is not an agency, congressional documents are not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For details on FOIA, see the Access to Records from the Federal Government section.
As a matter of practice, however, most documents generated by Congress are publicly available. On occasion, Congress and its committees may designate certain documents, reports, and transcripts confidential or classified. See Goldand v. Central Intelligence Agency, 607 F.2d 339, 346 (D.C. Cir. 1978), which affirms that "Congress has undoubted authority to keep its records secret, authority rooted in the Constitution, longstanding practice, and current congressional rules." For these documents, there is no established method for gaining access to them, and one must request declassification and release of the document from Congress directly.
The vast majority of congressional documents are readily available to the public online. There are a host of extremely useful online resources for accessing transcripts of floor debates, committee hearings, and voting records. Disclosures by members of Congress relating to funding and expenditures, drafts of proposed legislation, and congressional reports are also easily accessible online. Below is a list of some of these resources:
Government Resources
Resources From Private Organizations