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Congressional Research Service

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The Congressional Research Service CRS) is a federal agency dependent on the U.S. Congress of the United States. Often called the " think tank of Congress, "he does research on public policy. As an agency of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government , as the Library of Congress , CRS works exclusively and directly for members of Congress, their committees and their staff in a non-partisan and confidential.

It comprises about 700 people including lawyers, economists, bibliographers , scientists and social scientists. In 2007, he had a budget allocated by Congress for about 100 million USD over a few foundation grants to approximately 129 000 USD.

The CRS can be assisted by two other congressional agencies. First, the Congressional Budget Office ( CBO ) that provides information to Congress on budget matters, taxation and fiscal policy analysis, options, their costs and their effects. Second, the Government Accounting Office ( Government Accountability Office ) which assists the Congress to oversee and monitor government activities by conducting independent audits, investigations and evaluations of federal programs. Collectively, these three agencies employ over 4000 people.

CRS reports are considered as high-level reports, sharp and objectives, but as a political issue, they are not made directly accessible to the public. There have been several attempts to draft legislation to make these reports available online, the last in 2003, but none passed. To purchase, an individual must apply to its representative or senator , the purchase of private dealers or searching for some public documents in various online archives.