How do I find the Congressional Record pages for a specific Senate vote in 1986?
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Finding the exact Congressional Record pages for a Senate vote in 1986 is a research task that requires using the bound Congressional Record issues or the GPO/govinfo indexes rather than relying on Congress.gov’s modern roll‑call database (which begins later); the most direct paths are the Library of Congress’s Congress.gov bound records for 1986 and the Government Publishing Office’s govinfo collection and index, supplemented by the Senate Journal and other research guides to pinpoint the day and page numbers [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Identify the vote by bill/resolution and date before chasing pages
Begin by identifying the specific measure (bill number, amendment, or motion) and an approximate date because the Congressional Record is organized by date and page numbers run through each session; the Senate Journal records the official result of every vote and can provide the day while research guides explain that roll call vote details and vote reports are organized by date and measure [4] [5].
2. Use the Library of Congress bound Congressional Record for 1986 to retrieve the Senate section
The Library of Congress hosts the bound Congressional Record by date and includes full Senate sections for 1986 that can be browsed and downloaded as PDFs (examples include the Sept. 26 and Oct. 2, 1986 Senate pages, Vol. 132) — open the date you need and look in the Senate portion for the “Votes in Senate” or the verbatim debate and vote entries, which include page numbers printed on each page [1] [6] [7].
3. Search govinfo (GPO) and the Congressional Record Index to find page citations
The Government Publishing Office’s govinfo collection holds the Congressional Record (bound edition) and provides search tools and an index that reaches back to the early 1980s; the govinfo help pages explain how to refine searches (for example, by member or “Member Voted Yes”) and how the index ties issues to package and granule IDs so users can retrieve the exact page for a vote [2] [3] [8].
4. If the precise date is unknown, use the Daily Digest, Indexes or Senate research guidance to narrow the day
When a vote’s exact date is unknown, the Congressional Record’s Daily Digest and the Congressional Record Index provide subject and member access to votes and can be used to locate the relevant issue of the Record; the Senate’s research guidance explicitly notes the Daily Digest and indexes as tools to locate activity within each issue [9] [10].
5. Remember Congress.gov’s roll‑call search limits and lean on older indexes for 1986 votes
Congress.gov provides excellent full‑text browsing for the Record and bound pages, but its roll‑call vote database for searching individual Senator votes starts later (the site’s searchable roll‑call history begins about the 101st Congress / 1989) so for 1986 it is necessary to use the bound Record PDFs or govinfo index rather than Congress.gov’s modern vote tables [8] [10].
6. If online searches stall, consult physical depository libraries or the Senate Journal
If the online bound PDFs and indexes do not yield a clear page citation, the Federal Depository Library Program, the Library of Congress reference services, or a local law library can provide the bound Congressional Record or Senate Journal volumes for 1986; National Archives and library research guides summarize where to find journals and related vote materials when digital retrieval is incomplete [2] [11] [12].
7. Practical step‑by‑step summary
Identify the bill/amendment and approximate date using secondary sources or the Senate Journal [4], open the 1986 bound Congressional Record issue on Congress.gov or govinfo and navigate to the Senate section PDF for that date [1] [6] [2], or run an indexed search on govinfo’s Congressional Record collection (using member/topic filters as needed) to get the exact page numbers [3]; if those fail, consult the Daily Digest or a depository library for the printed volumes [9] [12].