Congressional Record

From a legal standpoint, most materials in the Congressional Record are classified as secondary authority, as part of a statute's legislative history.

[citation needed] By custom and rules of each house, members also frequently "revise and extend" their remarks made on the floor before the debates are published in the Congressional Record.

Therefore, for many years, speeches that were not delivered in Congress appeared in the Congressional Record, including in the sections purporting to be verbatim reports of debates.

The contemporary British Parliament from which Congress drew its tradition was a highly secretive body, and publishing parliamentary proceedings in Britain did not become legal until 1771.

[10] From 1834 to 1856, Gale and Seaton retroactively compiled the Annals of Congress, covering congressional debates from 1789 to 1824 using primarily newspaper accounts.

[11] When Andrew Jackson's Democrats came into power in congress around 1830, Gales and Seaton's popularity declined due to their differing views with the administration.

The new printing partnership of Francis Preston Blair and John Cook Rives founded the Congressional Globe in 1833 with President Jackson's support.