Congressional Research Service (CRS)

People have asked me recently about my former job. What Does the CRS do, anyway?

Here's a summary of key functions, by Edith Sutterlin. former employee

The Congressional Research Service, part of the U.S. Library of Congress, serves Congress directly in achieving legislative, investigatory, oversight, and representative functions. Some of the ways CRS assists the Congress are by-

• Providing nonpartisan, comprehensive, objective, reliable, and timely legislative research and analysis to Members and Committees - through briefings, written products, electronic briefing books on current public policy issues.
• Preparing the Bill Digest and the LIS - Legislative Information Systems - to make tracking of legislation and current status and summary of bills available to all Congressional users (Thomas is the public face for the Bill Digest's useful information.)
• Providing anticipatory and on-demand products tailored to specific issues requiring information, analysis, or legal interpretation; some of these are written products; many are memoranda drafted in response to particular inquiries from congressional committees, individual Members, or their staff.
• Supporting Congressional "advice and consent" functions- related to treaties and Presidential nominations
• Assisting in supplying background material, preparation of witness lists and questions for witnesses for congressional committee hearing
• Assisting in compilation or authorship of committee prints
• Training new congressional staff in legislative procedure and legal research
• Giving reference and bibliographic support of Member and congressional staff activities - supported by CRS staff knowledge and specialized collections, the vast resources of the Library of Congress itself, as well as extensive electronic database capabilities online and print
• Facilitating oversight of executive departments- timing, budget cycles, identification of issues/questions, reference and research support
• Supporting for investigatory work by Select and Ethics committees and by Members
• Offering constituent assistance when requested by the Member, staff, or District offices as Members meet with constituents, LC tours for their groups, and assistance for caseworkers who respond to constituent inquiries, within time and resource constraints giving identified priorities
• Orienting new Members and key staff to Congress and to CRS services- an introduction to Congress as an institution and to congressional office management and CRS services
• Giving briefings for congressional travel- both in response to requested information needs, and through identification of "model" or "innovative" programs, organizations, and individuals as well as comparative analysis - throughout the world
• Serving as a guardian of Congress' institutional memory; provision of historical research and support for current issues/ cases. The legislative branch preserves and protects congressional powers to balance the powers of the executive and judiciary. Part of the U.S. Federal Government's system of Checks and Balances; Separation of Powers built into our U.S. Constitution.
• Maintaining Subject Expertise available to Congress across all disciplines:

  "CRS is organized into six interdisciplinary research divisions: American Law; Domestic Social Policy; Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade; Government and Finance; Information Research; and Resources, Science and Industry....The work of the CRS research divisions is supported by five infrastructure offices." I worked in the Office of Information Resources Management.

This summary is not official or complete. It is not meant to be all-inclusive or detailed, but a general overview. After I wrote it, I added this link to CRS' public summary information.

While on staff at LC, I gave tours to visiting tourists or congressional constituent groups. Many of these were to student groups, given on my own time as a volunteer. One spring I returned to VA to take a church group on a tour of the Library of Congress. Here's a picture before departure.

	IN my last month at CRS/LC - January 2002, Many of my My CRS friends gave me a beautiful party and cakes, a generous farewell gift,, and wonderful kind memories of many years working together to serve Congress.
Packing up and clearing out my office. All those old work files and monos were in the process of packing (see the boxes on my desk past the computer), trying to prepare for a move to PA. Of course, as you can see by my clipboard behind, I was still working on IRC rotation schedules for the website, clearing out emails, and answering fanfold requests.

eds, 9/2003