GPO Updates the Digitized Congressional Record (Bound Edition) from 1941-2007

On August 2, 2017, the Government Printing Office announced the release of a digitized version of the Congressional Record (Bound Edition) from 1941-1950, which is available for free viewing here. This latest addition supplements previous releases of the Congressional Record begun earlier this year and provides users with access to the digitized Congressional Record from 1941-2001, 2005-2007. 

Published for the first time in 1873, the Congressional Record is a record of debates and proceedings in Congress and is published daily whenever Congress is in session. It provides legal researchers with a wealth of legislative history material, as well as ensuring that Congressional proceedings and debates remain open and transparent. At the end of each Congressional session, the daily editions of the Congressional Record are bound into a single volume, re-paginated, and re-indexed for future ease of searching and use.

The newly digitized volumes from 1941-1950 cover a large span of important historical events, including World War II, the Presidencies of Roosevelt and Truman, the design and implementation of the Marshall Plan, and the beginnings of the Cold War. For example, one can now view the original Congressional Record edition containing President Roosevelt’s speech to Congress following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (87 Cong. Rec. 9504 (1941)).

The digitized versions of the Congressional Record (Bound Edition) are downloadable as PDFs and also allow for in-text searching. The GPO provides a useful organizational framework for accessing the volumes, with each volume typically divided by date and then subdivided by either House or Senate records.

In addition to this free resource from the GPO, UNC Law students and faculty also have access to PDF digitized versions of the Congressional Record (Bound Edition) through HeinOnline and ProQuest Congressional (1873-2012).