§166a. Equal access to Congressional Research Service Reports

the term “CRS” means the Congressional Research Service;

the term “CRS Congressional Intranet” means the Website maintained by CRS at www.crs.gov, or a successor website, for the purpose of providing to Members and employees of Congress access to information from CRS;

the term “CRS Director” means the Director of CRS;

the term “Librarian of Congress” means the Librarian of Congress appointed pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 136–1;¹

the term “Member of Congress” includes a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to Congress; and

the term “Website” means the website established and maintained under subsection (b).

is updated contemporaneously, automatically, and electronically to include each new or updated CRS Report released on or after the effective date of this section;

shows the status of each CRS Report as new, updated, or archived; and

displays the following statement in reference to the CRS Reports included on the Website: “These documents were prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.”.

that the Librarian of Congress is provided with all of the information necessary to carry out this section, including all of the information described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subsection (c)(1)(A), in such format and manner as the Librarian of Congress considers appropriate; and

that CRS makes available any information and assistance as may be necessary to facilitate the contemporaneous, automatic, and electronic provision of CRS Reports to the Librarian of Congress as required under this section.

comprehensive;

contemporaneously updated;

searchable;

sortable;

maintained in a human-readable format;

maintained in a structured data format;

downloadable; and

inclusive of each item of information described in paragraph (1)(A) with respect to each CRS Report.