Within the CIS/Index there are two major types of accession numbers used: those for Congressional publications and those for Public Laws. While the numbering system for Public Laws is the standard system used by Congress, the system employed by CIS to enumerate Congressional publications is unique to the CIS/Index. For an explanation and example of the numbering systems used by CIS for their indexing and abstracting, please select one of the following (to return to this list, please click on the colored bar):
The CIS accession number system is based on the premise that most Congressional publications fall into one of several types - documents, reports, committee prints, etc. A further premise is that most publications can be associated with a specific Congressional committee or office. The accession number assigned to a publication is therefore based on three factors: the publication type, the issuing body, and the sequential order in which the publication was produced.
The accession number consists of a base three-character code which indicates the parent body and the committee office or special category which issued the document. The first character designates the parent body:
H for House of Representatives
S for Senate and
J for Joint
The next two numbers designate the committee office or special category which issued the publication. While these remain relatively constant throughout the years, committees have come and gone and this has required occasional revisions of the two digit codes used to designate the various committees. The most recent series of codes issued is:
| HOUSE COMMITTEES | JOINT COMMITTEES | SENATE COMMITTEES |
| H160 Agriculture H180 Appropriations H240 Banking and Financial Services H260 Budget H270 Commerce H320 Economic and Educational Opportunities H400 Government Reform and Oversight H420 House Oversight H430 Intelligence, Select H460 International Relations H520 Judiciary H570 National Security H650 Resources H680 Rules H700 Science H720 Small Business H740 Standards of Official Conduct H750 Transportation and Infrastructure H760 Veterans' Affairs H780 Ways and Means H960 Commissions and Temporary Committees |
J840 Economic J860 Taxation J870 Printing J890 Commissions and Special Committees J930 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) J950 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) |
S140 Aging, Special S160 Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry S180 Appropriations S200 Armed Services S240 Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs S260 Commerce, Science, and Transportation S310 Energy and Natural Resources S320 Environment and Public Works S350 Ethics, Select S360 Finance S380 Foreign Relations S400 Governmental Affairs S410 Indian Affairs S420 Intelligence, Select S520 Judiciary S540 Labor and Human Resources S680 Rules and Administration S720 Small Business S760 Veterans's Affairs S960 Commissions and Temporary Committees |
The final digit indicates the publication type:
0 = House or Senate Document or Special Publication
1 = Hearing
2 = Committee Print
3 = House or Senate Report
4 = Senate Executive Report
5 = Senate Treaty Document
While most publications are issued from one of the committees of subcommittees of Congress, there are several types of publications which are issued by either house as a whole, a conference committee consisting of members from both houses, or an agency affiliated with Congress such as the Congressional Budget Office or Office of Technological Assessment. The following table illustrates the various types of publications which are not issued from a single committee and the way in which accession numbers are usually assigned:
| House and Senate Documents | Assigned either to the committee which has legislative jurisdiction or to the committee which initially presented the Document to the House or Senate. Documents which do not relate to any specific committee are assigned a separate code number established for this purpose. |
| Special Publications | If the publication does not relate to any specific committee, it is given a separate code number established for that purpose. If the publication deals with a matter under the legislative jurisdiction of a specific committee, the code for that committee will be assigned. |
| Conference Committee Reports | Assigned to the committees from which the House and Senate managers have come. |
| CBO and OTA publications | If the publication was requested by a specific committee, the code for that committee will be used. If the publication was not prepared for a specific committee, it will be assigned a separate CBO or OTA code number. |
This four letter code provides the organizational scheme of the abstract volume as well as the root of the CIS accession number. The accession number is completed by the addition of a serial number (a sequential number assigned as publications are produced) and - in the case of hearings testimony abstracts - a decimal number added to identify each individual item of testimony (usually in the order in which the testimonies were heard).
The following number would identify the fifth item of testimony in the thirteenth hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee abstracted by CIS within a given year.
Public laws are abstracted and indexed under the number officially assigned by Congress. These numbers are assigned sequentially for each Congress as the various bills become laws. The designation PL denotes a public law and is followed by the two-digit designation of the Congress which enacted the legislation. The digits following the hyphen designate the sequential number assigned to the particular law. References to public laws found within the CIS/Index as well as the organization of the Legislative Histories volumes issued since 1984 and the legislative histories found at the end of the abstracts volumes issued previous to 1984 are by public law number. The following number would designate the fifteenth public law enacted by the 101st Congress:
©1998 John Spears