What is the Congressional Research Service?
The Congressional Research Service is an arm of the Library of Congress devoted to providing for Congress research and analysis on legislative issues. In addition to meeting with Congressional members and staffers, CRS releases reports and issue briefs for members of Congress. These reports and issue briefs are made available to Congress through the use of a web utility called the "CRS Web." The CRS Web is not made available for use by the general public.

What is Open CRS?
Open CRS is a project of the Center for Democracy & Technology that serves as a centralized location to learn about the Congressional Research Service and search for CRS reports that have been released to the public by members of Congress

Why doesn't the Congressional Research Service make its reports available to the public on the web?
The Congressional Research Service strongly believes that its sole purpose is to directly serve Congress and not the public. CRS views attempts to make available to the public reports that it creates as something other than its statutory authority to communicate with and for Congress. We disagree. We are not asking CRS to disclose anything, we only seek to have Congress disclose (at the discretion on individual representatives) communications between CRS and Congress that are not classified or confidential in nature. This should not create any more work for CRS or force employees of CRS to communicate with anyone other than Congress.

How do I obtain CRS Reports from my representative?
Assuming you know what report you would like, obtaining a CRS Report from your representative should be as simple as calling your representatives office (local office or DC) and requesting the report. Detailed instructions on requesting reports from Congress can be found here.

How do I know what report to request? Is there a list available? Surprisingly, no. Just as CRS reports are not made directly available to the public, it does not make a list of reports available.

Once I receive a CRS Report, how do I add it to the Open CRS database?
PDF versions of CRS reports can be added to the Open CRS collection here.

Why does Congress need to provide a public interface to CRS reports when a site like Open CRS does the same thing?
Open CRS does not do the same thing. Open CRS points to reports that have already been released to the public. Unfortunately, the number of reports released are a small fraction of the number of reports provided for Congress by CRS.

If Congress decides to release all CRS Reports to the public, what purpose will Open CRS serve?
When Congress decides to give the public access to CRS Reports, Open CRS will still serve as an educational tool, as well as a location to house archives of past CRS reports.

Why isn't (insert collection here) a "Featured Collection" on Open CRS?
There are several collections of CRS reports that exist online but are not listed as a "Featured Collection" on Open CRS. Featured collections are unique in that they are frequently updated and notify Open CRS when the collection is updated. Contact CDT if you have a collection that you would like to feature on Open CRS. Inclusion on this list does not imply that the organization responsible for a collection is joining CDT in calling for Congress to make all reports directly available to the public.

I have a collection of CRS reports that I would like featured on Open CRS. How do I accomplish this?
Great! There are two options for adding your collection to the Open CRS database: maintaining your own collection or adding your reports to the Open CRS collection. Contact CDT for more information about using Open CRS tools to help maintain your own collection.