Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top Featuring Improvements to the Congressional Globe – February 2025

In our last Congress.gov post, Emily announced that Statute Compilations are now available on Congress.gov. Today, we are excited to announce enhancements to the Congressional Globe on Congress.gov that continue the process of migrating the Globe from our legacy Century of Lawmaking site.

The Globe is a predecessor to the Congressional Record and it covers the years 1833-1873, which means that it includes debates on many significant events in American history, including the Civil War and a portion of Reconstruction. You can locate the Congressional Globe by clicking on the browse page at the top of the screen, selecting a Congress between the 23rd – 42nd Congresses, and then taking a look under the heading “Debates of Congress.”

The Globe is legacy data that is not yet full-text searchable, so it is a good idea to use the indexes for the volumes to locate what you are interested in. If you have a particular date in mind, you can also select “Browse by Date.” For instance, you could find congressional reactions to a significant Civil War battle by browsing any debates that took place shortly after the battle. I used the browse-by-date feature to locate a reaction to the first Battle of Bull Run by Rep. Wright.

Though the Globe is not yet full-text searchable, it is possible to search the page headings of the Globe by selecting “Congressional Record” in the dropdown menu on the Congress.gov homepage, typing in your search terms, and then at the bottom left-hand side of the results screen, clicking on the “Debates of Congress Edition” filter, and selecting “Congressional Globe.” Here is an example of search results concerning debates on the Civil War that have the page heading “Defense of the Union.”

When you select a page you would like to read, you will see a page-turner that has controls at the top that allow you to jump to a certain page using a dropdown menu, turn the page using the arrow buttons, zoom in on the page using the + or – buttons, or download the page. Continuing with the Civil War and Reconstruction theme, this example demonstrates the page-turner with a speech beginning at the bottom, right-hand side of the page by Hiram Revels, the first African American senator who served as a senator from Mississippi from 1870 to 1871.

Do you have ideas on how to continue to improve the presentation of the Congressional Globe on Congress.gov? Send us your feedback.

Enhancements

Enhancement – Congressional Globe

• Access Congressional Globe daily PDFs from the Browse by Date page. Use the Congress selection list to view pages for the 23rd through 42nd Congress.
• Search or browse the Index to the Appendix by session. Select a page number to view and download the appendix page image.
• See About Debates of Congress and Coverage Dates to learn more.

Congress.gov Tip

Congress.gov has several two-minute tip videos available on topics ranging from how to set up email alerts, how to locate a bill, how to use search terms and filters, and how to locate appropriations resources on Congress.gov.

Most-Viewed Bills

The most-viewed bills for the week of February 9, 2025 are below.

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