IX. Legislative, 1933-1971

Extent:
399 box(es) (198.25 linear feet) and (194.25 linear feet)
Scope and content:

The Legislative series is primarily constituent mail, but includes legislative drafts, memoranda, hearing transcripts, and correspondence with congressional colleagues. Although official senate committee records remain with each committee and, when retired by the committee, they are transferred to the Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration, in Washington, D.C., as part of the permanent records of Congress, Senator Russell retained copies of some materials related to these committees.

Legislative subject matter pertains to legislation being considered by Congress. Once bills were passed into law, subjects relating to them or the agencies they affected were filed in the General Series. The researcher will find a significant overlap between the Legislative and the General series in related subject matter.

Floor speeches, legislative drafts, and related correspondence and material are also found in the Speech/Media series. Committee-related trips are filed under Trips subseries in the Personal series. For 1930s legislative activities, the researcher should also check the Early Office series, which was a carry over file series from Russell's gubernatorial office and existed until the reorganization of the filing system in Russell's senate office in 1943. Some specific legislative issues or committee-related subjects which created large volumes of correspondence and materials exist as separate series rather than being filed as an appropriate committee subseries file. Civil Rights and MacArthur Hearings are separate series.

In Russell's Washington office, the Legislative files were organized by Congress. The overall arrangement of this file series was chronological, latest date first, followed by an alphabetical arrangement of standing committees or independent subject headings. For example, 1963-1964 files were kept for current use; and when the 88th Congress adjourned, these files were retired unless they carried over. In practice, however, few files were ever retired, because of the filing system for the yellow copies (see Subgroup C description).

For easier access, the Library staff has modified arrangement of the Legislative Series from chronological to alphabetical by standing committee and subject headings. The subject files were treated as independent file headings (i.e., Railroad Legislation, Veterans Legislation) by Senator Russell's office staff and interfiled alphabetically with committees. Russell bills, private bills, voting record, select and special committees of the senate, and congressional joint committees follow alphabetical standing committees and independent subject headings. Within subseries, arrangement is chronological, latest date first.

Contents

Access and use restrictions

Parent restrictions:
Case mail, cross-reference copies, and military academies are closed. Additional files are restricted throughout the collection, as noted in the container listing.
Parent terms of access:
Before material from collections at the Richard B. Russell Library may be quoted in print, or otherwise reproduced, in whole or in part, in any publication, permission must be obtained from (1) the owner of the physical property, and (2) the holder of the copyright. It is the particular responsibility of the researcher to obtain both sets of permissions. Persons wishing to quote from materials in the Russell Library collection should consult the Director. Reproduction of any item must contain a complete citation to the original.