From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms
Manual / Senate Manual / House Rules and Manual

Manual: The official handbook in each house prescribing in detail its organization, rules procedures and operations.
The Senate Manual, prepared during the second session of each Congress by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, contains the standing rules, orders, laws, and resolutions affecting the Senate, as well as copies of historical U.S. documents, such as Jefferson’s Manual, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution of the United States, et cetera. and selected statistical information on the Senate and other Government entities. It is generally issued each Congress as Senate Document 1.
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The House Rules and Manual is published by the House Parliamentarian’s Office. This document is formally entitled Constitution, Jefferson’s Manual, and Rules of the House of Representatives and contains the fundamental source material for parliamentary procedure used in the House of Representatives and includes:
- Constitution of the United States
- Applicable provisions of Jefferson’s Manual
- Rules of the House
- Provisions of law and resolutions having the force of rules of the House
- Pertinent decisions of the Speakers and other presiding officers of the House and Committee of the Whole interpreting the rules and other procedural authority used in the House of Representatives.
Printed as a House Document, the Manual is usually authorized by House resolution at the end of a Congress for printing at the beginning of the following Congress. As such, the House document number reflects the Congress that authorized the printing although the cover page identifies the applicable Congress for the contents.
Also see § 10.40 Official Rules Publications of the House, § 10.50 Official Rules Publications of the Senate, in Congressional Deskbook.
More
- House Rules and Manual – Govinfo.gov
- House Rules and Manual – FDsys
- Senate Manual – Govinfo.gov
- Senate Manual – FDsys
- 2008 House Ethics Manual (456-page PDF
) House Committee on Ethics
- “The seven stages of the office seeker“
- Frank / Franking Privilege (Congressional Glossary)
- Franking Information & Communication Forms – Committee on House Administration
- Senate Ethics Manual (S. Pub. 108-1) (542-page PDF
) – Senate Ethics Committee
- Jefferson’s Manual – FDsys
- “Congressional Oversight Manual,” CRS Report RL30240 (140-page PDF
)
- “House Rules Manual: Summary of Contents,” CRS Report 98-262 (6-page PDF
)
- “House Committee Markups: Manual of Procedures and Procedural Strategies,” CRS Report R41083 (220-page PDF
)
- “Resolving Legislative Differences in the Congress: Conference Committees and Amendments Between the Houses,” CRS Report 98-696 (40-page PDF
)
Courses
- Congressional Operations Briefing – Capitol Hill Workshop
- Drafting Federal Legislation and Amendments
- Writing for Government and Business: Critical Thinking and Writing
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- Drafting Effective Federal Legislation and Amendments in a Nutshell, Audio Course on CD
- Congress, the Legislative Process, and the Fundamentals of Lawmaking Series, a Nine-Course series on CD
Publications
CongressionalGlossary.com, from TheCapitol.Net
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