Congressional Quarterly Almanac Stories
This database contains information from all articles in the main chapters of Congressional Quarterly Almanac from 1948 to 2003. CQ includes articles about bills that became law, many that did not become law, and some items not explicitly legislative in nature. A case is an article or-in rare instances-a portion of an article. CQ Almanac articles typically cover one legislative initiative. When a CQ article contains information about several different statutes or bills, articles are divided so that each record contains information about one legislative initiative. The articles vary in size and depth of description.
Note: Due to variations in CQ volume size and story length, we advise using proportions rather than absolute counts when comparing policy topics across time. For questions or concerns regarding this issue, email ampol@u.washington.edu.
As many of the following variables as possible are captured from each article:
Variable Name and Description
Key ID
Unique identification number for each record.
Year
The year covered in the CQ Almanac.
Congress
The number of the Congress.
CQ Section Code
CQ Chapter Identifier, e.g. appropriations or foreign policy.
Page Number
In some of the early years, CQ did not have discrete policy chapters. In those cases, since no section code is available, a page number is given.
House Bill Number 1
The bill focused upon in the particular article (up to four House bills.)
House Bill Number 2
House Bill Number 3
House Bill Number 4
Senate Bill Number 1
The bill focused upon in the particular article. Presidential nominations are coded "nom con" in the Senate bill number variable. (up to two Senate bills.)
Senate Bill Number 2
House Report, Senate Report.
The number of the report(s) from the House and Senate committee markup(s).
Public Law Number
The number of the public law in the United States Code if the legislation became law.
House Committee 1
The House committee mentioned as involved with the legislation (up to three committees). For a complete list of committees and subcommittees, see the committee codebook.
House Committee 2
House Committee 3
House Subcommittee 1
The House subcommittee mentioned as involved with the legislation (up to three).
House Subcommittee 2
House Subcommittee 3
Senate Committee 1
The Senate committee mentioned as involved with the legislation (up to two).
Senate Committee 2
Senate Subcommittee 1
The Senate subcommittee mentioned as involved with the legislation (up to two).
Senate Subcommittee 2
Conference Report
The number of the report from the House-Senate conference committee.
Size of Article
The length in column lines of the article (130 per page [or 65 for each of two columns]). Approximately the first ten years of the time series has three columns and a different typeface. The average number of words per column line in these early years is one-half as much as later years. Thus the number of column lines counted per article in the early years is halved. Therefore the size variable in our data base is consistent over time.
Pass House
1 if legislation passed the House; 0 otherwise
Pass Senate
1 if legislation passed the Senate; 0 otherwise
Signed by President
1 if legislation signed by the president; 0 otherwise.
Vetoed by President
1 if vetoed by the president; 0 otherwise
Attached to Omnibus, #
The number of the omnibus bill if legislation is attached to one.
Omnibus Bill
1 if legislation described is itself an omnibus measure; 0 otherwise.
Other Bills
The component measures listed if legislation described is an omnibus bill.
Description
A concise description of the article or piece of legislation focused upon.
Topic Code
The main theme of the article from reading the Description, and where necessary referring back to the article itself. See the topic codebook for a complete list and description of the 19 major topics. This variable is 2-digits, listing only the major topic area.
Topic Code 2
A more detailed topic coding based on a 4-digit code. See the topic codebook for the complete list and description of the topics and subtopics. There are 19 major topics and over 200 subtopics.
Note that omnibus articles are assigned a topic code based on the main issue discussed; however, component parts of omnibus bills are often the focus of separate articles and assigned their own topic codes.
Updated June 1998
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