Moving in the right direction: Developments in the online availability of full-text Congressional committee hearing transcripts

Abstract

Abstract A 2003 study revealed a shortage of full-text Congressional committee hearing transcripts for the 105th and 106th Congresses from both GPO Access and Congressional committee Web sites. By using hearings in the LexisNexis Congressional database as the control group, the current study analyzes the availability of full-text hearing transcripts for the 107th and 108th Congresses, and finds that there has been considerable improvement in the number and extent of full-text hearing transcripts offered by GPO Access and Congressional committee Web sites for hearings from the two most recent Congresses. There is, however, one notable exception: Senate hearing transcripts continue to be inadequately represented by both GPO Access and the Senate committees' own Web sites. Possible causes and implications of the findings are explored.