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Title 2, The CongressRelease 119-110

§180 Legislative Information Retrieval System

Title 2 › CHAPTER 5 — LIBRARY OF CONGRESS › § 180

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Create one central electronic system for Congress to find legislative information. The Library of Congress must build and maintain it with other parts of Congress. "Legislative information" means bills and amendments, committee hearings and reports, the Congressional Record, bill status and activity data, and other public info tied to the lawmaking process. The Library must write a plan for the system, follow a prior study, and get approval from the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, the House Committee on Oversight, and both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees. The Library must give those committees regular progress reports and study ways to share the info with the public, then send that analysis to the same committees.

Full Legal Text

Title 2, §180

The Congress, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Purpose
The purpose of this section is to reduce the cost of information support for the Congress by eliminating duplication among systems which provide electronic access by Congress to legislative information.
(b)“Legislative information” defined
As used in this section, the term “legislative information” means information, prepared within the legislative branch, consisting of the text of publicly available bills, amendments, committee hearings, and committee reports, the text of the Congressional Record, data relating to bill status, data relating to legislative activity, and other similar public information that is directly related to the legislative process.
(c)Development of single system to serve entire Congress
Pursuant to the plan approved under subsection (d) and consistent with the provisions of any other law, the Library of Congress or the entity designated by that plan shall develop and maintain, in coordination with other appropriate entities of the legislative branch, a single legislative information retrieval system to serve the entire Congress.
(d)Development and approval of plan
The Library shall develop a plan for creation of this system, taking into consideration the findings and recommendations of the study directed by House Report No. 103–517 to identify and eliminate redundancies in congressional information systems. This plan must be approved by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, and the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Library shall provide these committees with regular status reports on the development of the plan.
(e)Availability of information to public
In formulating its plan, the Library shall examine issues regarding efficient ways to make this information available to the public. This analysis shall be submitted to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives for their consideration and possible action.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Committee on House Oversight of House of Representatives changed to Committee on House Administration of House of Representatives by House Resolution No. 5, One Hundred Sixth Congress, Jan. 6, 1999.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

2 U.S.C. § 180

Title 2, The Congress

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110