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Congressional Primary Sources

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EBBS

Media Events Board (EBBS Board)

Leadership briefings and many press conferences for both the House and Senate are posted on the electronic bulletin board and on the galleries’ websites. The media events board is displayed in most of the galleries on televisions, but it can also be accessed on your computer, tablet, or mobile phone at https://ebbs.senate.gov. This board is maintained by the House and Senate Radio/TV galleries.

Pro Tip:  Add the media events board to the home screen on your iPhone or Android device.  If you have trouble adding the board to your home screen, please don’t hesitate to ask gallery staff for assistance.

iPhone:  Open Safari on your phone and navigate to https://ebbs.senate.gov.  Then, click the [ ] icon at the bottom of the screen.  From here, choose the Add to Home Screen option. 

Android: Open the Android/Chrome browser on your phone, and go to https://ebbs.senate.gov.  Tap the icon with three dots in the upper right corner of the screen.  Choose the Add Shortcut to Home Screen option.

House Committee Hearings

Credentialed media have a limited number of reserved seats or standing places at some major committee hearings. The House committees (not the galleries) decide how much space to set aside for reporters, whether to reserve seats, and whether to offer seats on a first-come, first-served basis. Media demand often exceeds the space, so reporters are encouraged to show up early for events. The galleries do not staff all committee hearings, but often attend hearings when high media attendance is expected to help ease reporters’ ability to secure a seat.  Committees sometimes offer overflow rooms nearby where the press and visitors may go to watch the committee proceedings.

Reporters are reminded that a dedicated Daily Press Gallery space is available in Rayburn 2102, on the first floor along Independence Avenue. This space includes televisions connected to the internal House channels. Reporters who are denied entry to a hearing can use Rayburn 2102 as an overflow room, since the televisions have channels that broadcast committee hearings.

House Committee Hearing Schedules

A list of House committee hearings is available at this site: https://docs.house.gov/committee.

This site is maintained by the committees themselves but is *usually* accurate. Each committee also maintains a list of hearings on the committee web site.

The House Press Gallery sends an e-mail mid-afternoon with a list of committee hearings for the following day. If you would like to sign up for this regular e-mail, just ask any staffer in the gallery or call 202-225-3945. This list is only available to reporters credentialed through the Daily Press Gallery.

In the House Press Gallery in the Capitol, a display board will always show committee hearings for the current and next day.

House Committee Web Sites, Videos, and Reports

A complete list of House committee websites is available at http://www.house.gov/committees/.

You can view videos of committee hearings, notable excerpts, and live streams at this site:  https://www.congress.gov/committees/video.

You can view committee documents at this site: https://www.congress.gov/committees.

House Majority Leader’s Schedule

Yearly Calendar: Sometime in November/December, the Majority Leader releases the calendar for the coming year, showing session days and district work days. During district work days, the House is not in session and Members may return to their districts. You can view the yearly calendar here:  https://www.majorityleader.gov/2017-calendar/.

Weekly Schedule:  After 5:00pm on the Friday before a session week, the Majority Leader usually releases the schedule for the coming week. This provides a preliminary outlook for bills expected to be considered. You can access it here: The https://www.majorityleader.gov/weekly-schedule/

Daily Schedule:  The evening before a session day, the Majority Leader will announce the legislative schedule for the next day. This is usually the most accurate guidance on what is expected the next day. You can download the daily schedule here: https://www.majorityleader.gov/daily-schedule/

Note: On the web sites listed above, you can also subscribe to an e-mail list that will deliver these announcements to your inbox automatically.

Colloquy:  After final votes for the week, the Majority Leader and Minority Whip will sometimes discuss the schedule for the upcoming week.  This is often the earliest glimpse into scheduling for the upcoming week. 

Minority Whip’s Schedule

One advantage of the Minority Whip’s calendar is that it offers the ability to subscribe to the session calendar. Using this option, you can auto-load Outlook, Gmail, and many other calendaring programs with the session/non session schedule.

The Minority Whip also releases scheduling guidance. You can view the monthly and yearly calendars here:

https://www.democraticwhip.gov/calendar

The Minority Whip also releases the Daily Whip, Weekly Whip, and Nightly Whip. These resources show the bills up for debate, the voting schedule, and some detail about the bills under consideration.

Daily Whip:
https://www.democraticwhip.gov/floor-resources/the-daily-whip

Weekly Whip:
https://www.democraticwhip.gov/floor-resources/the-weekly-whip

Nightly Whip:
https://www.democraticwhip.gov/floor-resources/the-nightly-whip

Clerk’s Floor Proceedings

The Clerk’s Office maintains a site that you can use to see the latest floor proceeding summaries. The site is constantly updated throughout the legislative day.  The floor proceedings for today can be found at this site:
http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx.

Archived floor proceedings for previous days can be found at the main site for the Clerk: http://clerk.house.gov.

House Live

The House Live site is maintained by the Clerk’s Office and allows you to watch floor proceedings live. The site also includes archived video from previous legislative days, along with floor proceeding descriptions to accompany the archived video.

https://live.house.gov

Roll Call Vote Breakdowns

The House Clerk’s site will allow you to view final vote tallies and breakdowns for any roll call vote in the House. These are usually posted about 15-20 minutes after the last vote in the series.  Archived vote breakdowns are also available dating back to the 101st Congress (1990). You can access roll call vote breakdowns at this site:

http://clerk.house.gov/legislative/legvotes.aspx

House Floor Scheduling Information

The House Democratic Cloakroom has a recorded message line where reporters get the latest information about the House floor schedule. To access this recorded message, call (202) 225-1600.

For information about the schedule from the Republican Cloakroom, visit their website at http://repcloakroom.house.gov/.