How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress?

How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress?

How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted
July 30, 2021
to Congress?
Kathleen E. Marchsteiner
Congress may direct federal agencies, commissions, and the President to prepare and submit
Senior Research Librarian
required reports to Congress or its committees as a function of its oversight of the executive

branch or to obtain information for the purpose 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.
Reports satisfying reporting requirements may be submitted to Congress in several ways:
 Agencies may submit physical copies of required reports to congressional committees or to Congress itself
if no specified recipient is named.
 In cases where the required reporting is described as testimony, or a 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.
 The timing of submissions may vary: reports and other information may be required to be submitted once
(e.g., by a specified date), on a recurring basis (e.g., annually), or as specified circumstances arise (e.g.,
each time the agency head takes a particular action).
The specific details of the report submission process are unique to each chamber and are outlined in this CRS report. In
general, written reports not submitted directly to congressional committees typically are submitted to the House and Senate as
Executive Communications (ECs). 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 actual documents are then transmitted to
the House or Senate committee(s) of referral. Committees establish internal procedures for the filing and distribution of
reports they have received.
As there is no single repository for reports submitted to Congress in response to reporting requirements, copies of these
reports may be difficult to obtain. 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.

Congressional Research Service

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Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1
Overview of the Report Submission Process for the House and Senate .................................... 2
Report Submission Process in the House of Representatives............................................. 2
Presidential Report Submission to the House of Representatives.................................. 3
Report Submission Process in the Senate....................................................................... 4
Presidential Report Submission Process to the Senate ................................................ 5
Report Submission Process to Congressional Committees................................................ 5
Sources for Finding Submitted Reports............................................................................... 5

Figures
Figure 1. Typical Report Submission Process in the House of Representatives .......................... 3
Figure 2. Typical Report Submission Process in the Senate .................................................... 5

Contacts
Author Information ......................................................................................................... 6

Congressional Research Service

How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress ?

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 bil .1
Reporting requirements and the reports submitted to satisfy them have a number of potential y
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 al 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.

1 When found in statutes, reporting requirements are legally binding directives by Congress to federal entities. By
contrast, when found in committee reports, reporting requirements do not carry the force of the law. Nonetheless,
because committee reports are authoritative records and serve to establish congressional intent and need, federal entities
may still choose to satisfy the reporting requirements due to the significance Congress has impar ted upon them and to
preserve their relationships with committees of jurisdiction. If a statute incorporates committee report language by
reference and that incorporated language includes a reporting requirement, then the reporting requirement becomes
legally binding.
2 For more general information on congressionally mandated reports, see CRS Report R46357, Congressionally
Mandated Reports: Overview and Considerations for Congress, by William T . Egar; CRS Report R42490,
Reexam ination of Agency Reporting Requirem ents: Annual Process Under the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010
(GPRAMA), by Clinton T . Brass; and CRS Report RL30240, Congressional Oversight Manual, coordinated by
Christopher M. Davis, T odd Garvey, and Ben Wilhelm .
3 For more information on locating reporting requirements and submitted reports, see CRS Report R46661, Strategies
for Identifying Reporting Requirem ents and Subm itted Reporting to Congress, by Kathleen E. Marchsteiner.
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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 wil 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 general y to Congress—and not to a particular committee—typical y
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 general y to Congress, the House and Senate typical y wil 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 typical y 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 typical y 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 wil 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.

4 T he House Parliamentarian’s office and the House Clerk’s office provided valuable input on this section of the report.
5 T he House Parliamentarian’s office acts as the Speaker’s agent when making referrals under clause 8 of House Rule
XII.
6 Executive Communications (ECs) are listed by communication number in the Congressional Record, which is
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How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress ?

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 formal y 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 official y 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 official y referred to
the committee(s) of jurisdiction.

available online from 1989-present at https://www.congress.gov and in printed form for previous years. In addition, the
online version of the Daily Digest on Congress.gov provides a link to the Congressional Record page(s) that list that
day’s executive communications. ECs within House and Senate Communications also are available for searching and
browsing on Congress.gov at https://www.congress.gov/.
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Report Submission Process in the Senate
In the Senate,7 if a written report is not submitted directly to a committee, the report typical y 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 wil 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 fulfil s the reporting
requirement. In other cases, the EC submission wil 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
fulfil s 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.

7 T he Senate Parliamentarian’s office and the Secretary of the Senate’s office provided valuable input on this section of
the report.
8 In some cases, reports due to the Senate will be sent to the President Pro T empore of the Senate instead of the Vice
President. An example of the type of reports submitted to the President Pro Tempore include reports pursuant to the
War Powers Resolution, 50 U.S.C. 1544.
9 T he Senate Parliamentarian’s office acts on behalf of the presiding officer when making referrals under clause 1 of
Senate Rule XVII.
11 In times of extended recess, ECs sent to the Senate do not progress beyond the Senate Parliamentarian’s office; their
submission is not recorded in the Congressional Record or on Congress.gov by the Senate Executive Clerk’s office
until the Senate returns. As such, these ECs are not sent to their respective committe e(s) until the Senate returns from
recess. T his is the case even when the Senate meets in occasional pro forma sessions during such recesses.
11 ECs are listed by communication number in the Congressional Record, which is available online from 1989-present
at https://www.congress.gov and in printed form for previous years. In addition, the online version of the Daily Digest
on Congress.gov provides a link to the Congressional Record page(s) that list that day’s executive communications.
ECs within House and Senate Communications also are available for searching and browsing on Congress.gov at
https://www.congress.gov/.
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How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress ?

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 wil be submitted in an envelope from the White House and wil 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.
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How Are Reporting Requirements Submitted to Congress ?

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

Author Information

Kathleen E. Marchsteiner

Senior Research Librarian

Disclaimer
This document was 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 n ot 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.

12 For more information, please see CRS Report RL30240, Congressional Oversight Manual, coordinated by
Christopher M. Davis, T odd Garvey, and Ben Wilhelm .
Congressional Research Service
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