Congressional Research Service Forum

[chaosnoodlesoup]

I've read their website and the wikipedia article, but I haven't been able to find a first hand account from attorneys experienced with CRS.

What does one do as an attorney for CRS? Are jobs with CRS considered prestigious? Are they hard to get? How are advancement prospects? Etc. etc. I'm not sure if anyone on TLS has ever been with CRS, but if you know anything besides the data on their website, I'd appreciate it if you'd share.

Thanks!

[chaosnoodlesoup]

hopeful bump.

[MoonshineJoe]

I am working for CRS this summer but, unfortunately, I do not have any answers to your questions about advancement prospects, etc. I _can_ tell you that they work as a think tank for Congress and submit their findings in confidential reports.
Many of these reports have been gathered together by organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology and can be found on the web. See --LinkRemoved-- or http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html.

So, in short, they write reports for Congress, I suspect its not particularly prestigious (though more so than ambulance chasing), and I have no idea about advancement prospects. If anyone has anymore information I would love to hear it.

[Nicholas Nickleby]

I am working for CRS this summer but, unfortunately, I do not have any answers to your questions about advancement prospects, etc. I _can_ tell you that they work as a think tank for Congress and submit their findings in confidential reports.
Many of these reports have been gathered together by organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology and can be found on the web. See --LinkRemoved-- or http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html.

So, in short, they write reports for Congress, I suspect its not particularly prestigious (though more so than ambulance chasing), and I have no idea about advancement prospects. If anyone has anymore information I would love to hear it.

Confidential reports? Aren't all CRS reports available to the public?

[MoonshineJoe]

I am working for CRS this summer but, unfortunately, I do not have any answers to your questions about advancement prospects, etc. I _can_ tell you that they work as a think tank for Congress and submit their findings in confidential reports.
Many of these reports have been gathered together by organizations like the Center for Democracy and Technology and can be found on the web. See --LinkRemoved-- or http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/index.html.

So, in short, they write reports for Congress, I suspect its not particularly prestigious (though more so than ambulance chasing), and I have no idea about advancement prospects. If anyone has anymore information I would love to hear it.

Confidential reports? Aren't all CRS reports available to the public?

They aren't classified, but the reports are not made directly available to the public. Supposedly you can get your hands on reports by requesting a copy from your congressmen, though that would require knowing which report to request. The reports are not too hard to get a hold of if you know where to look, but they aren't written for public consumption.

FWIW, Wikipedia suggests that there have been a few attempts by Congress to mandate that the reports be made publicly available. All of these attempts have failed.