The Ralph S. Regula Papers consist of materials dating from circa 1970s to 2000s. The collection represents the 36-year public service career of Ralph Regula as a Republican congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 16th District of Ohio. All materials in the collection were compiled by the office of Congressman Regula, with the exception of the items pertaining to his various election campaigns, which were compiled by his campaign committees. Though many materials from his time in Congress during the 1970s are not included in this collection, the collection does document Regula’s committee work from the 1980s until his retirement in January 2009, especially his work as chairman of two subcommittees of the House Committee on Appropriations.

The collection includes materials showing Regula's work on the Appropriations Committee and subcommittees underneath it, such as budgets, congressional hearing records, committee reports, and subject files relating to issues dealt with by the subcommittees; similar files are found for other congressional committees Regula served on, such as the Budget Committee and the Select Committee on Aging. Also included is information on other projects and commissions Regula was involved with while in office, such as the steel caucus, trade, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. Further series in the collection concern bills sponsored or co-sponsored by Regula, as well as his voting record.

The collection also contains materials such as constituent service files, media relations files, travel files, campaign files, and audiovisual materials, all of which serve to represent the work done by Regula outside of the chamber of the House of Representatives. Included in these series is publications for constituents, press releases, the "Regula Report" newsletter written by Regula, campaign ephemera, office files, newspaper clippings, and constituent mail. Finally, the collection contains audiovisual materials recording Regula's radio campaign advertisements, appearances on news programs, and public service announcements.