Locating the Text of Hearings
When bills are introduced, they are referred to the committee having jurisdiction over that area of legislation. Committees often hold public hearings to gather testimony, opinions, and information regarding the referred legislation. Witnesses, who are usually experts, can make valuable and well-documented presentations that include analysis from uniquely informed perspectives.
There are two types of hearing documents: transcripts and prepared (or written) statements. Transcripts are written records of what was said at a hearing and by whom. A prepared statement is a document that a witness submits ahead of a hearing that indicates what that witness plans to say to the committee.
Transcripts can take months or years to be made publicly available. Prepared statements are usually accessible sooner.
Hearing transcripts and prepared statements can be found in a number of places including individual committee websites and other resources recommended and listed below.
Hearings are also normally included in Compiled Legislative Histories.
Westlaw
Westlaw provides the following:
U.S. Congressional Testimony includes selected coverage from 1993 until 1996 and increased coverage from 1996 forward.
U.S. Political Transcripts includes oral testimony from congressional committee hearings among other transcripts, 1994 - present.
Lexis
Lexis provides the following:
Congressional Hearings 1824 - present.
CQ Congressional Testimony 1993 - 2018.
Congressional Documents and Publications (Federal Information & News Dispatch, Inc.) Selected transcripts from 2000 to present.
Federal News Service 1988 - 2019. Hearings of significant public interest only.
HeinOnline
HeinOnline provides:
Congressional Hearings from 1887 to present (plus 1849-1851).
Govinfo.gov
GovInfo.gov provides hearing transcripts beginning with 1955 to present (plus a few scattered years from 1945 on). This is a great source if you are looking for a specific hearing and you know which committee held the hearing and roughly when it took place.
ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional provides:
Hearings, 1834 -
Go to Advanced Search, deselect everything from the menu on the left, then select "Hearings 1824 - Present."
Recommended: When searching, choose the "Anything" option from the pull-down search menu to allow the search to run through the documents' full text.
Congress.gov
Congress.gov offers:
Hearing transcripts beginning with the 103rd Congress (1993) forward. For those hearings that have transcripts, you will see “Transcript Available” to the right of the hearing's title in your search results.
Hearing videos are available for selected hearings. Coverage varies by committee.