[1] CQ was founded in 1945 by Nelson Poynter and his wife, Henrietta Poynter, to provide a link between local newspapers and the complex politics within Washington, D.C. Thomas N. Schroth, managing editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, was elected in October 1955 as executive editor and vice president.

He was fired from Congressional Quarterly in 1969 after festering disagreements with Poynter over editorial policy at the publication, and Schroth's efforts to advocate "more imaginative ways of doing things" reached a boil.

[3] In 1965, Poynter summed up his reasons for founding CQ: "The federal government will never set up an adequate agency to check on itself, and a foundation is too timid for that.

CQ was also an early leader in delivering information on a real-time basis, starting with a dial-up service in 1984.

[5] Ten CQ reporters have won the "Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress" from the National Press Foundation: Alan Ehrenhalt in 1983, Joan Biskupic in 1991, Janet Hook in 1992, George Hager in 1996, Jackie Koszczuk in 1997, Sue Kirchhoff in 2000, John Cochran in 2003, Jonathan Allen in 2008, Matt Fuller in 2015 and John M. Donnelly in 2018.