Template:CongRept/doc

Congressional Reports originate from Congressional Committees and deal with proposed legislation and/or related issues under consideration or investigation. Generally, there are : This template simplifies the in-line citation and/or online retrieval of these three types of Congressional Reports in general via the THOMAS online database.
 * House, Senate or Joint Reports: Reports of one or more Congressional Committee concerning proposed legislation and/or findings on matters under investigation pertinent to the Committees' areas of responsibility or jurisdiction.
 * Senate Executive Reports: Reports of the Committee on Foreign Relations relating to Treaties between the United States and foreign nations which have been submitted to the U.S. Senate for ratification, or are reports of the various Senate Committees regarding the nomination of individuals to Federal government or government related positions.
 * Conference Reports: A Conference Report is typically an agreement negotiated between the House and Senate via Conference Committees in the attempt to resolve the points in disagreement related to pending legislation before both Chambers of Congress. The Conference Report is printed and submitted to each chamber for its consideration, such as approval or disapproval. When both Chambers approve a Conference Report, the agreed upon text within it usually becomes the Enrolled version of the proposed legislation prepared for submittal to the President for veto or signing.

Parameters Defined

 * United States Congress. Every newly convened United States Congress has two sessions, generally mirroring two entire calendar years give or take two dozen days of overlap in January. Valid parameters begin with the One Hundred Fourth Congress, First Session (104 = 1995) and continue sequentially up thru the current Congress, the One Hundred Eleventh, First Session (111 = 2009). The Session of Congress itself, the First or Second, is not pertinent to the retrievability of Congressional Reports for this template.
 * Classification of Congressional Report. The three main types of Congressional Reports can be most easily classified simply by the Chamber in which they originate in with the caveat being the exclusivity of the Senate Executive Reports. Valid parameters for Senate, House, Joint or Conference Committee Reports are based on which chamber the report was originally initiated in, the House of Representatives (h) or the Senate (s).
 * <DD>Number in Assigned Order. Congressional Reports of all types can be initiated in either Chamber of Congress and are assigned numbers sequentially as they are produced during the course of the Session of Congress. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives of every new Congress zeros out the previous one's accumulated list of assigned Congressional Report numbers and start anew. Valid parameters are 1 thru 10000</DD></DL>

Application
You enter:  or    Template returns:  [http://www.fakeURL.com Y. Rept. x-z]

Example
 You enter:   Template returns:  The House Committee on Rules reported an original measure,.

Unresolved/Still to do

 * Possibly needs additional "Pipe" capability for custom outputs.
 * Ex. Rept only available from FDsys database(s), Not THOMAS, apparently.