Congressional Research Service

The Congressional Research Service (CRS ), also called in the U.S. " Congress 's think tank", is the "public policy research " agency of the United States Congress.

The CRS is a body established by law agency within the Library of Congress. He works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress and congressional committees and does so on a confidential and impartial basis. A similar institution in Germany is the Scientific Services of the German Bundestag.

In CRS work about 900 employees, including lawyers, economists, librarians and scientists.

In fiscal year 2007, the CRSs got a budget of about $ 100,786,000 from Congress.

In addition to the CRS there are two other ' congressional support agencies ':

• Represent it supplies the Congress with information and reports on budgetary issues, programmatic issues and analyzes policy options, costs and effects - The Congressional Budget Office
• The Government Accountability Office assists it to Congress to observe the activities of government. To this end, there are hearings with experts ( "independent audits " ), investigations ( " investigations" ) and evaluation of programs in the federal government ( "federal programs" ).

The three agencies employ over 4000 people.

CRS reports are enjoying high reputation and are regarded as profound, accurate, objective and up to date. They are not made directly available to the public. There have been several attempts to change this (for example, 2003). The public can ask senators or congressmen, make them accessible to a report. Sometimes people sell private copies, to which they are previously assessed; sometimes they are found in "web archives", together with other documents previously published. CRS reports are available on the intranet of the Congress and of the three agencies.