The Congressional Research Service
Summary
Congress's own research service, funded at $136.1 million and 641 staff in FY2025, answered 75,319 congressional requests that year -- the Good Citizen series' entry on the office behind the reports your representative's staff quotes.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In fiscal 2024, logged 75,319 custom responses to Congress⧉ -- 37,769 e-mails, 27,860 video/phone briefings, 2,490 confidential memoranda, and 1,856 in-person briefings and testimony. Staff published 1,040 new products and updated 1,717 more⧉, plus 6,530 Congress.gov bill summaries. served 100 percent of member offices⧉, and 12,500-plus participants attended its 353 seminars and training programs⧉.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress funded at $136.1 million and 641 full-time staff in fiscal 2025⧉ -- flat against fiscal 2024. It declined 's $144.6 million fiscal 2026 request⧉, and when it enacted the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act (P.L. 119-37)⧉ in November 2025, held at that same $136.1 million again. Against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉, that is about $0.40 per person.
View data as table
| E-mail responses | 37,769 |
|---|---|
| Video and telephone briefings | 27,860 |
| Background and misc. services | 5,344 |
| Confidential memoranda | 2,490 |
| In-person briefings, consultation, testimony | 1,856 |
Why is it good for society?
's statute requires it, without partisan bias⧉, to help committees evaluate "recommendations submitted to Congress, by the President or any executive agency" -- so a panel weighing a White House-drafted bill isn't limited to the executive's own case for it. The law also requires staff be hired without regard to political affiliation⧉ and grants complete research independence⧉. reached every member office in fiscal 2024⧉ -- a freshman's staff gets the same confidential analysis as a chair's, not lobbyist or executive-branch framing.
- 's FY2025 budget ($136.1M / 641 ) held flat vs. FY2024, and Congress kept at that same $136.1M for FY2026 too -- rejecting both 's $144.6M request and a House-passed $141.1M compromise.
- answered 75,319 congressional requests in FY2024 -- about 118 per funded -- while reaching 100% of member offices, regardless of party or seniority.
Your handles.* Most non-confidential reports are free at crsreports.congress.gov or the Congress.gov CRS Products page -- opened by law in 2018. only takes requests from congressional offices, so ask your member of Congress to request a topic.
Sources(6) ▾
- Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress), About CRS: History and Mission (2024-03-14) — 's own official history/mission page -- source for the 1914 creation date, the Wilson signature, and the 1970 renaming under the Legislative Reorganization Act. loc.gov · original document
- Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (codifying Pub. L. 91-510), 2 U.S. Code Section 166 -- Congressional Research Service (1970-10-26) — The current codified text of 's authorizing statute (originally enacted as Title III, Sec. 321(a) of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970, Pub. L. 91-510), hosted by the House Office of the Law Revision Counsel's official U.S. Code site -- source for 's legal status as a Library of Congress department, its nonpartisan-duty and nonpartisan-hiring clauses, and its 'complete research independence' guarantee. uscode.house.gov · original document
- Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress), Congressional Research Service Annual Report, Fiscal Year 2024 (2025-09-15) — 's own statutorily mandated annual report to the Joint Committee on the Library (pursuant to Sec. 321, Pub. L. 91-510), covering Oct. 1, 2023-Sept. 30, 2024 -- source for the FY2024 workload snapshot (custom responses, products, seminars, member-office coverage) and the $136.1 million FY2024 appropriated-funds figure. loc.gov · original document
- Library of Congress, Library of Congress Fiscal 2026 Congressional Budget Justification (2025-02-03) — The Library of Congress's own FY2026 budget submission to its appropriations subcommittees. The chapter's Object Class Summary and Resource Summary tables (pp.119-122) give the FY2025 enacted level (funded via the full-year continuing resolution, at the FY2024 enacted dollar/ level) and the FY2026 request -- source for this entry's budget and KPIs, plus the FY2024 workload narrative corroborating the Annual Report's figures. loc.gov · original document
- Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress), Legislative Branch: FY2026 Appropriations (CRS Report R48612) (2026-03-26) — 's own status report tracking the FY2026 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, updated March 26, 2026 -- source for the enactment of P.L. 119-37 (signed Nov. 12, 2025) and confirmation that the FY2026 act funded at the same $136.1 million as FY2025, rejecting both 's $144.6 million request and a House-passed $141.1 million figure. Cited as a status-tracking record, not as 's own self-assessment -- the dollar figures it reports trace to the enacted appropriations act itself. congress.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. census.gov · original document
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The Congressional Research Service is Congress's own research shop, created in 1914 as the Legislative Reference Service⧉ when President Wilson signed the bill establishing it inside the Library of Congress. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970⧉ renamed it , codified at 2 U.S.C. §166⧉ as a separate Library of Congress department. sits in the legislative branch, working only for Congress -- led since September 2024 by Director Karen Donfried⧉, a former Europe specialist.