Subject & Course Guides: Congressional Hearings Hot Topics: Home

Thank you for visiting the Congressional Hearings Hot Topics LibGuide. This is a collaborative project to improve access to current hot topic issues examined by Congressional Committees in order to encourage the use of these primary resources for undergraduate assignments.

Guide features:

Links to Congressional Committee web pages of recent hearings arranged by broad "hot topic" subjects.

"What is a Hearing?" provides some basic information about Congressional Committee Hearings.

The hearings are tagged using Delicious.com and the bookmarks tab provides a tag cloud view.

To "expand your research" beyond the content provide on the Committee's hearing pages, use the mind map research guide to find other government information and scholarly resources.

Other features will be added later and plans are included in the "about" page.

What is a hearing?

"A meeting or session of a committee of Congress -- usually open to the public -- to obtain information and opinions on proposed legislation, to conduct an investigation, or oversee a program." (Our American Government, 2003, p. 80)

Why are Hearings relevant to persuasive arguement research?

Congressional Hearings:

Raise awareness and increase public visibity of an issue
Provide a forum for broad and often opposing perpsecitve of view and opinions expressed to Congressional Committees
Cull together expert witnesses that include: academics, government officials, representatives from special interest groups, celebrities, private citizens
Testimony structured "to allow individuals to refute or counter arguments made by another witness"

U.S. Congressional hearings are primary resources for your research AND real life examples of persuasive writing and speeches.

"A committee’s goal in holding a hearing often is not narrowly limited to collecting information for policy development. It can include publicizing an issue or problem to focus attention and build support for an issue in broad or narrow areas of the public."