FNS was incorporated in 1985. Before the creation of FNS, many years "the only way to find out what exactly was said at a Washington hearing or briefing was to be there. Harried journalists, lawyers and Government staff workers dashed from session to session, then relied on scribbled notes and individual tape recordings to reconstruct what happened." This agreement settled charges that the two firm, the United States' largest producers of verbatim transcripts, had an
anti-competitive agreement. FNS accused CQ of
corporate espionage, alleging in court documents that CQ had paid a FSN employee to provide it with confidential business information and that CQ had used a customer password to access FNS transcripts. CQ Roll Call is a
wholly owned subsidiary of
The Economist Group and was formed from the merger of
Congressional Quarterly,
Roll Call, and
Capitol Advantage. ==References==