Congressional archives consist of records and personal papers that document the history and activities of the United States Congress.
The personal papers of individual senators and representatives, broadly called congressional collections, are the private property of members of Congress.
The personal papers of members of both chambers are preserved at archival repositories throughout the United States.
The official records of Congress are created in the standing, select, and joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives.
There have been thousands of Members of Congress and preservation of the significant volume of congressional archival materials remains a challenge.
The committee is chaired by the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate and includes the Senate and House historians, the Archivist of the United States, and appointed public members who represent historians, political scientists, congressional archivists, and others responsible for legislative records.
[12] In 2008, the House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 307, declaring that papers of Members are “crucial to the public’s understanding of the role of Congress in making the Nation’s laws and responding to the needs of its citizens.”[13] Names of repositories that hold congressional papers are available through the National Archives and Records Administration’s Center for Legislative Archives and the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress.