Section 1: Overview — Description of the Compilation and its data sources
Section 2: Biographical Compilation — Biographical information on each Representative
Section 3: Alphabetical Index — Representatives listed alphabetically and indexed to the initial Congress in which he or she served.
Section 4: Congressional Number Index — Listing of Representatives who served in each Congress
Section 5: Panoptic Index — Comprehensive matrix of all Representatives by Congress and by state
The Compilation’s biographical information is intended to be self-validating by any user; i.e., all the data for each Representative can be confirmed by examining the adjacent biographical summary. Moreover, the summary itself can be validated against the primary source via the working http link provided for each Representative.
Provided for each Representative is a brief biographical summary (provided by congress.gov) plus a data table consisting of the following items:
- The state from which each was elected
- The Congress(es) to which each was elected
- The political party affiliation at the time of election (if known)
- Dates of service for each Representative, also the reason for early termination of service (e.g., due to death or resignation) when applicable
- When elected by a special election (in order to fill a prematurely vacated seat), the name of the predecessor is provided
- Nominal Tenure in office — the number of consecutive Congresses to which a Representative has been elected
- Actual Tenure in office — the cumulative number of days served consecutively without interruption