Have you ever wondered what Congress is really up to? Ever wondered what you may learn by sitting in the gallery above the Senate or House floor to hear and observe the goings on, rather than learn about bits and pieces later in "The Hill", Politico or CNN? I can say Congress is actually doing a whole lot more than ever makes it to the news broadcasts, since they are working full days (when they deem it worthy to show up for a days work..but that is another thread).
I came across a site and resource to see just what I pose as a question above. This is a thing I stumbled across late last year and have drawn great benefit from it since. The News reports what the news chooses to report and usually in a way or in a tone entirely set by the editorial staff. This applies equally to CNN, Fox, The Blaze or The National Enquirer. The basic institutional model doesn't change, and that basic model means you are only ever seeing snippets from the original pool of information a news organization starts with.
Here are one of those larger pools, so you can read and draw your own conclusions, straight from the source. Why accept spin, when you can see something before it was spun at all?
United States Government Printing Office - Congressional Daily RecordFriday September 19th, opened to the House of Representatives floor business for the dayIf you have ever sat down with a court transcript, this will be familiar in layout and nature. It's not as dumbed down (thank goodness) as transcripts are, and so, it is considerably more interesting to read. However, this isn't "part of..." the official record. This *IS* the official record. Everything they consider, everyone they confirm or look at for appointment, as well as everything discussed or voted on the chamber floors (which isn't classified) should appear in this record, on a daily update.
For example, the following is just one small portion of one entry from Friday, September 19th for the House chamber and it's business of the day.
HOUSE BILLS AND A JOINT RESOLUTION APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT
The President notified the Clerk of the House that on the following
dates he had approved and signed bills and a joint resolution of the
following titles:July 25, 2014:
H.R. 255. An Act to amend certain definitions contained in
the Provo River Project Transfer Act for purposes of
clarifying certain property descriptions, and for other
purposes.
H.R. 272. An Act to designate the Department of Veterans
Affairs and Department of Defense joint outpatient clinic to
be constructed in Marina, California, as the ``Major General
William H. Gourley VA-DOD Outpatient Clinic''.
H.R. 291. An Act to provide for the conveyance of certain
cemeteries that are located on National Forest System land in
Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota.
(The above continues to cover dates across the summer period for bills signed by the President)
The entry I chose above simply pulls about 10% of one document, which represented a small piece of a recent Friday's business for our Congressmen. The day's agenda runs to many more, and some more serious topics. However, the above gives a good sense of how detailed and trivial this source gets, while covering so much more above the level of the routine housekeeping.
The dailies supplied by the GPO also run back, in this same easy to view format, to 1994. Any debate or floor discussion outside closed hearing by either the Senate or House should be there, organized by Chamber, Year, Month, Week and Day.
Enjoy!