The site provides access to C-SPAN's collection of Congressional proceedings and other political and public affairs programming, including complete archives dating back to 1987.

According to C-SPAN itself, the first ever event broadcast by the network to be archived was the 90-minute confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork that aired on C-SPAN1 in September 15, 1987.

[6] When the site was launched in 2010 its director Robert X. Browning said 10,000 hours of other tapes from 1979 to 1987 were slated for restoration, digitization, and addition.

"[3] Mediaite columnist Frances Martel called it "a landmark in government transparency" and said it was valuable for historical research.

[13] The full archive officially launched March 17, 2010,[1][13] upon completion of a multi-year project that digitized C-SPAN programming from 1987 onward.