Student Scholarship

Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

The Legislative Reference Service was established in its modern form by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 to advise and assist Congressional committees in evaluating legislative proposals. Created to counteract the executive branch's monopoly on research and expertise, the service was designed to provide Congress with an independent, non-partisan source of scholarly analysis and technical assistance. By 1964, the service had grown significantly, employing 220 staff members and handling over 100,000 requests annually across various specialized divisions such as American Law, Economics, and Foreign Affairs. 

Despite its original mandate to provide high-level consultative services, a 1964 study revealed that the vast majority of the workload shifted toward providing scholarly research, short-answer materials, and constituent services. Statistical analysis indicated that only one in eight requests pertained to current legislation, and of those, only 31 percent required in-depth analysis beyond providing copies of bills or speeches. Congressional staff increasingly viewed the service as a factual library and a resource for answering constituent mail rather than a primary partner for legislative development, often preferring to consult committee staffs or executive agencies first for policy matters. 

The service faces a crossroads rooted in organizational autonomy and a lack of clear jurisdictional lines between its divisions. While some divisions have successfully integrated with committees, others remain aloof, functioning more like academic departments than active legislative assistants. To fulfill its intended purpose, the study concludes that the service requires larger appropriations, expanded staffing with practical experience, and a cultural shift toward proactive engagement with the political realities of the legislative process. Without these changes, the service risks remaining a respected but secondary information agency rather than the essential research arm of the United States Congress.

Research Highlights

  • The Problem: The Legislative Reference Service (LRS) is primarily utilized by Congress as a factual library for constituent inquiries and short-answer research rather than the high-level consultative and analytical service envisioned by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. 

  • The Method: The author conducted a statistical analysis of 97,444 inquiries from fiscal year 1964 and examined approximately 9,550 member request slips from February to September 1964 to determine the percentage of requests related to current legislation. 

  • Quantitative Finding: Only one in eight requests pertains to current legislation; 31 percent of legislative requests ask for more than a copy of a bill or a speech; the LRS staff grew to 220 persons with an appropriation of $2,119,000 by 1964. 

  • Qualitative Finding: LRS divisions operate with high autonomy reflecting individual chiefs' philosophies; Congressional staff prioritize using committee resources or executive agencies for legislative research over the LRS; some senior specialists remain aloof from active legislative duties to focus on private research. 

  • Finding: To fulfill its statutory mandate, the LRS requires increased appropriations, expanded staffing with "Hill" experience, and improved inter-division cooperation to overcome its reputation as a mere information clearinghouse. 

Publication Date

1-1965

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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