Introduction

Congress may direct federal agencies, commissions, and the President to prepare and submit required reports to Congress or its committees as a function of its oversight of the executive branch or to obtain information for the purposes of enacting legislation. These reporting requirements may be located in public laws, codified in the United States Code, or included in committee reports accompanying a bill.¹

Reporting requirements and the reports submitted to satisfy them have a number of potentially valuable uses for Congress. They may serve to facilitate oversight, ensure agency compliance with congressional intent, and inform congressional decisionmaking.² For example

• Information contained in required reports could be used in developing questions in advance of a hearing,
• Submitted reports themselves could confirm executive branch compliance with a previous requirement, and
• New reporting requirements could be considered on the basis of a perceived need for information not addressed by existing reporting requirements.

However, identifying reports due to Congress and which reports have been submitted is often difficult. Reporting requirements may vary widely in various aspects such as deadlines, requested content, and the congressional entities to which the reports are to be submitted. The forms in which reports are delivered, including the submission of written materials or in-person delivery through briefings or testimony, also may vary. Because of these variations, it is often not possible to identify all submitted reports or reporting requirements due from any given federal entity or on any given topic.³

To facilitate congressional use of required reports and understanding of the submission process, this CRS report describes the various methods by which reports are submitted to Congress and details the differences in the processes by which reports are submitted to the House and to the Senate.

Overview of the Report Submission Process for the House and Senate

Individual reporting requirements may differ in the naming of report submitters and recipients, the form such a report will take, the types of actions that need to be taken to transmit the information, and the timing mechanisms that trigger the report submissions.

If a report is due to a specific congressional committee, to committee leadership, or to House or Senate leadership, agencies may submit the report directly to those recipients. In-person reports may be delivered through briefings, testimonies, or meetings.

Written reports that are due generally to Congress—and not to a particular committee—typically are submitted to the House and the Senate as Executive Communications (ECs). ECs are written statements presented to Congress in physical form by federal entities and other designated entities. The House and Senate Parliamentarians' offices examine these submissions and determine each report's committee referral. Next, the House Clerk's and the Senate Executive Clerk's offices record the EC submissions and create an abstract to be published in the Congressional Record. The documents are then transmitted to the congressional committee(s) of referral. If a written report is due generally to Congress, the House and Senate typically will each receive a copy.

Report Submission Process in the House of Representatives

In the House of Representatives,⁴ if a written report from a federal entity is not submitted directly to a committee, the report typically is first sent to the Speaker of the House's office in the form of an EC (see Figure 1).

The requirements for submission of an EC in the House include (1) a cover letter addressed to the Speaker of the House with an original signature and (2) a physical copy of the submitted item, including a summary. As such, when written reports are submitted as an EC to the House, the only copy of the report that is possessed by the House may be a physical or hard copy.

ECs submitted to the House typically first arrive in the Speaker's office by mail, though in some cases they are hand-delivered. The Speaker's office then sorts through them and sends them to the House Parliamentarian's office. To expedite the process, some federal entities hand-deliver reports—again in the form of ECs—directly to the House Parliamentarian's office instead of going through the Speaker's office. The House Parliamentarian's office stamps the document with the date of receipt and determines the committee to which the report will be referred.⁵

The House Parliamentarian's office then sends the EC to the House Clerk's office, where the Executive Clerk of the House records the submission and creates an abstract noting the entity submitting the report, the title of the communication, the date received, and the committee(s) to which it has been referred. This abstract is uploaded to the executive communications database in Congress.gov and is published in the Congressional Record to acknowledge the House's receipt of the item.⁶ The full text of the agency submission is not included in the Congressional Record.

After recording the submission, the House Clerk's office sends the report to the committee(s) of referral. The House Parliamentarian's office and the House Clerk's office do not retain copies of the submitted reports.

Figure 1. Typical Report Submission Process in the House of Representatives

Source: Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis. Note: This figure applies to written reports that are not sent directly to a committee.

Presidential Report Submission to the House of Representatives

When the President submits a report to Congress in response to a reporting requirement, the report may be submitted to the House as either an EC or a Presidential Message (PM). ECs are not formally laid before the House and follow the process previously outlined. However, if a PM is submitted when the House is in session, the House receives the White House messenger at the center aisle of the House chamber and halts other floor business to receive the PM. After receipt, the House Parliamentarian's office reviews the communication and notes the committee(s) of jurisdiction. Then, the message is laid before the House and officially referred to the committee(s) of jurisdiction. If a PM is received when the House is not in session, the House Parliamentarian's office accepts the communication and notes the committee(s) of jurisdiction; however, further action awaits the next session day, when the PM is laid before the House and officially referred to the committee(s) of jurisdiction.

Report Submission Process in the Senate

In the Senate,⁷ if a written report is not submitted directly to a committee, the report typically is sent first to the Vice President of the United States in the form of an EC (see Figure 2).⁸

In the Senate, EC submissions must include a physical document with an original signature in order to be accepted, though the report itself may or may not be a physical document. In some cases, federal entities will transmit the EC in the form of a package that includes a cover letter with an original signature and an attached hard copy of a report that fulfills the reporting requirement. In other cases, the EC submission will simply be a physical cover letter with an original signature and an accompanying report that is included by reference to a website URL embedded in the cover letter text. Navigating to this URL leads to the submitted report that fulfills the reporting requirement. This second method of submission may be more likely to occur with lengthier reports.

ECs may be submitted to the Vice President's office by mail, though in some cases they are hand-delivered or sent by messenger. Upon receipt, the Vice President's office hand-delivers the ECs to the Senate Parliamentarian's office for referral.⁹ After the Senate Parliamentarian's office determines the appropriate committee referral, ECs are transferred to the Senate Executive Clerk's office, where the submission is recorded and given an EC number and an abstract is created to identify the EC.¹⁰ That information is uploaded to Congress.gov, and the abstract is published in the Congressional Record to acknowledge the Senate's receipt of the item.¹¹ The full text of ECs is not included in the Congressional Record.

After recording the submission, the Senate Executive Clerk's office sends the report to the committee(s) of referral. As in the House, the Senate Parliamentarian's office and the Senate Executive Clerk's office do not retain copies of the submitted reports.

Figure 2. Typical Report Submission Process in the Senate

Source: CRS analysis. Note: This figure applies to written reports that are not sent directly to a committee.

Presidential Report Submission Process to the Senate

When the President submits a report to Congress in response to a reporting requirement while the Senate is in session, the report is submitted to the Senate as a PM. If the President submits the report while the Senate is not in session, the report is submitted to the Senate as an EC. If the report is sent as a PM, it will be submitted in an envelope from the White House and will be delivered directly to the Senate floor to be presented to the Senate. Unlike ECs, the full text of PMs is recorded in the Congressional Record.

Report Submission Process to Congressional Committees

While congressional committees often receive reports that satisfy reporting requirements through the aforementioned processes in the House and Senate, if a report is due to a specific congressional committee or to committee leadership, agencies sometimes may submit the report directly to those recipients.

The methods by which agencies submit reports directly to congressional committees vary by individual agency and by committee. As such, there is no standardized process by which reports are submitted directly from a report submitter to a committee.

Each committee has its own individualized procedures for how it processes and organizes submitted reports.

Sources for Finding Submitted Reports

Agencies may submit physical copies of required reports to congressional committees, committee leadership, or to Congress in general without a specified recipient. In cases where the required reporting is described in statute as a testimony, meeting, briefing, or other in-person or oral report, the report may be delivered in person before the respective recipients (i.e., committees, individuals, or Congress in general) with or without an accompanying written report.

There is no single repository or database for digitized or physical reports submitted to Congress.

Additionally, as stated previously, the House and Senate Parliamentarians' offices, the House Clerk's office, and the Senate Executive Clerk's office do not retain copies of submitted reports. As such, copies of reports submitted to Congress may be difficult to obtain. In some cases, it may be easier to verify that a report was submitted than to locate a copy of the report.

Potential sources for locating submitted reports include the following:

• The Congressional Record (although frequently not the full text);
• Member, committee, or agency websites;
• Hearing transcripts;
• Committee clerks;
• Congressional liaisons for federal agencies; and
• Freedom of Information Act inquiries.

In some instances, previously submitted reporting may not be readily available. In these instances, Congress has a variety of oversight tools it may use to obtain any information it requires and need not rely on information from previous reporting.¹²

For more information on strategies for locating reporting requirements and reports submitted to Congress, please see CRS Report R46661, Strategies for Identifying Reporting Requirements and Submitted Reporting to Congress, by Kathleen E. Marchsteiner.