Federal Legislative History
by Kris Albertus, Reference Librarian, St. Louis
Intro | Types of Legislative Documents | Legislative History Finding Tools |
Locating Legislative Documents | Related Resources
Legislative history is an aspect of legal research that often strikes fear into the hearts of both novice and experienced legal researchers. The trail of documents generated by Congress that accompanies a public law or bill can be lengthy and quite circuitous.
The amount of time you spend will be dictated by how much legislative history is actually needed for your research. If all that is needed is some explanation of the legislative intent behind a particular public law, often the final House or Senate report that accompanied the bill upon passage is enough. On the other hand, when a complete picture of a law’s journey to final passage is needed, a little more work (and reading) is involved.
This guide is intended to 1) provide an overview of the types of documents that are generated by the legislative process, 2) describe the legislative history finding tools available and how they point to items related to particular laws, and 3) explain where to find legislative documents in print or online.
This guide does not attempt to explain the ins and outs of the legislative process. For details about the law-making process, please see Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government and How Our Law Are Made (Senate Document 105-14; pdf).
1) Types of Legislative Documents
Congress generates quite a paper trail! Below is a list of types of legislative documents and their descriptions. You will also find links to Part 3 about how to locate them.
Bills - A bill is a legislative proposal that becomes law if passed by both the House and the Senate and then approved by the President. When that happens, the bill becomes a “public law”. Bills are indicated by an “H.R.” if introduced in the House or with an “S.” if introduced in the Senate. Locate bills.
Joint Resolutions - Like bills, joint resolutions can become law and must be passed by both the House and Senate. Joint resolutions are often used to address technical issues such as errors or to make appropriations. They are also used to propose constitutional amendments. Indicated by “H.J. Res.” or “S.J.Res." Locate joint resolutions.
Senate/House Committee Prints - These are reports that are prepared for the members of a specific congressional committee. They often contain revisions of a bill along with studies prepared by congressional staff or experts in a particular field. While intended primarily for internal use, committee prints are sometimes later reissued as House or Senate Reports. Indicated by “H. Prt.” or “S. Prt.” Locate committee prints.
Senate/House Hearings - Congressional committees hold hearings to investigate a matter, to determine whether legislation is needed to address a particular issue, to receive feedback on a bill, or simply to gather information. Not all hearings are published. When published, they contain transcripts of testimony along with any written testimony that was submitted, plus any other exhibits that might have been part of the proceeding. Indicated by “H.R. Hrg” or “S. Hrg.” Locate hearings.
Senate/House Committee Reports - The bread and butter of legislative history. A congressional committee usually issues a report with a bill whenever it is sent out to the full House or Senate for consideration. A report usually contains a current version of a bill along with some analysis and explanation. Because reports are issued after hearings and revisions of a bill take place, they are often rich with information about issues in the bill and legislative intent. Indicated by “H.R. Rep.”, “S. Rep.”, “H. Conf. Rep” or “S. Conf. Rep.” Locate reports.
Senate/House Documents - These are documents that are required by law to be published or are issued by special request. They often include regularly published items, special reports, executive agency materials, and presidential materials. Indicated by “H. Doc.” or “S. Doc.” Locate documents.
Serial Set - Formally titled the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. A multi-volume set issued by Congress that contains Senate/House committee reports and documents discussed just above -- see links for reports and documents.
Congressional Debates/Proceedings - Debates are the discussions that take place on the floor of the House and/or Senate regarding whether a particular bill should be passed, amended, etc. Debates and other proceedings are recorded in the Congressional Record, which is indicated by “Cong. Rec.” or "CR." Locate Congressional Record.
Important note: Debates and proceedings are published in the softbound daily edition of Congressional Record. Before these volumes are later published in the permanent hardbound edition of Congressional Record, members of Congress are allowed to add extended remarks. The result is that pagination between the daily edition and the permanent edition is not consistent. Some argue that because the extension of remarks alters or adds to what actually happened on the floor, Congressional Record is not always an fair reflection of legislative intent at the time a bill was discussed. Regardless of this, research should cite to the permanent edition of the Congressional Record, unless the daily edition is all that is available.
Public Laws (“slip laws”) - Once a bill is passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, it is given a public law number. The public law number contains the number of the Congress that passed it, along with a number indicating its place in the chronology of what other laws passed during that Congress. They are sometimes called “slip laws”, b/c soon after they are enacted they are issued as paper pamphlets or “slips.” Indicated by “P.L.” Locate public laws.
Statutes at Large - The official hardbound publication for each Congress (from 1789 to current) that contains public laws in the chronological order of their passage. Indicated by “Stat.” Locate Statutes at Large.
U.S. Code - The subject-based compilation of U.S. law; organizes the various provisions of enacted laws into their respective subject areas. Indicated by “U.S.C.” Each section or law within the Code usually contains a note providing the public law number as well as the U.S. Statutes at Large citation. Locate the U.S. Code.
2) Legislative History Finding Tools (print and online aids)
Below is a list of 8th Circuit library and online resources that can help with a variety of legislative research tasks, whether it’s something as simple as finding a public law number or compiling a history. For each resource there is a brief description and notes about what kind of legislative information it provides.
Shepard’s Popular Acts and Cases; KF 90 .S52 ; located in St. Louis, Fargo, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Omaha, and St. Paul.
• Alphabetical listing of enacted laws by their popular name.
• Provides public law numbers, U.S. Statutes at Large citations, U.S. Code citation, dates of enactment.
USCA and USCS Popular Name Tables; KF 62.5 .W45 and KF 62 .L38 respectively.
• Alphabetical listing of enacted laws by their popular name.
• These volumes are located at the end of their respective sets.
• Provide public law numbers, U.S. Statutes at Large citations, U.S. Code citations, and dates of enactment.
• Available on Westlaw, Lexis, and LII
United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN): KF 48 .W45; Located in all 8th Circuit libraries
• Published by West; covers legislation from the 78th Congress (1943-44) through current.
• For each Congress there are volumes of enacted Laws, as well as corresponding volumes of Legislative Histories that contain final Senate/House reports if available. Note: Not all bills will necessarily have a report in the legislative volumes.
• Tables at the end of each congressional set provide U.S. Statutes at Large citations, legislative history synopses, major bills enacted, presidential signing statements, executive orders, and popular name tables.
• Index at the end of each congressional set.
Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories; KF 42.2 .J6; Located in St. Louis, Fargo, Kansas City, Little Rock, and St. Paul.
• Organized chronologically by public law number.
• Provides bibliography of sources such as law review articles or treatises that have compiled or just provide references to legislative documents for a particular law.
(Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to!)
Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format; http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/leg-hist.htm (Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C.).
• Organized alphabetically by popular name.
Congressional Information Services Index Annual (CIS); KF 49 .C621-623 REF; Located in all 8th Circuit libraries.
Note: The 8th Circuit library collects CIS finding tools only, not their microfiche holdings. We receive our congressional microfiche from the Government Printing Office (GPO).
• 3-volume set issued annually that includes: CIS Index, CIS Abstracts, and CIS Legislative Histories.
• CIS Index volume: Provides a subject/name index, a title index, and an index of bill numbers, reports, and documents associated with the Congress’ of a particular year. Index entries provide CIS references to the Abstracts and Legislative Histories volumes. 1970 through current.
• CIS Abstracts volume: Provides abstracts of the hearings, prints, reports, documents, and public law referenced in the other two volumes. 1970 through current.
• CIS Legislative Histories volume: Provides an outline (with abstracts) of all publications related to a specific act. Only includes significant public laws; no ceremonial or operational acts. Arranged by public law number. 1984 through current.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set Index; KF 49 .C61 REF; Located in St. Louis.
• The predecessor of the CIS Annual Index set discussed above.
• Indexes only Senate/House reports and documents (b/c that’s all the Serial Set contains)
• Coverage from 15th Congress (1789) through 91st Congress, 2nd session (1969)
• Provides subject/keyword index and a numerical list of reports and documents by Congress, along with their serial set number.
Thomas: Library of Congress’ web site for legislative research. A tremendous resource for legislative documents.
• Search or link to bills, bill summaries/status, reports, roll call votes, congressional record.
• For just about any bill or public law, the site functions much like the CIS Annual Index set because it provides an overview of a bill's progress, current status, links to reports if available, links to amendments, and links to debates/proceedings in Congressional Record (via GPO).
• Coverage varies according to type of document; see the Locating Legislative Documents..
Westlaw.com: Federal - Legislative History
• One of the research tabs Westlaw.com makes available
• To make it a permanent tab in your Westlaw.com account, click on the Add/Remove Tabs link near the top of the WL.com screen, scroll down to Federal Jurisdiction, and then check the Federal - Legislative History tab. Then scroll down and click OK.
• Westlaw provides some compiled legislative histories for specific acts: Arnold & Porter
Lexis: www.lexis.com/leghist
• One-stop shopping for some of Lexis’ legislative databases discussed in this guide.
• Lexis provides some compiled legislative histories for specific acts at this link.
• The CIS Legislative Histories and CIS Index mentioned above are available on Lexis as CISLH and CISINX; covers 1970 through current.
3) Locating Legislative Documents
Most legislative documents are available in either print or electronic format, sometimes both. As government information becomes more web-based, the trend toward Internet resources will continue to increase. Below are the 8th Circuit print/microfiche holdings and online sources for each type of document.
Bills/resolutions | Senate/House Committee Prints | Hearings | Senate/House Committee Reports
Senate/House Documents | Debates/Proceedings | Public Laws | Statutes at Large | United States Code
Microfiche
St. Louis; Media Room; Senate Bills and Resolutions - 96th Congress (1984-85) through 106th (1994-95); House Bills and Resolutions - 96th Congress through 106th Congress.
Online
Thomas: 101st Congress (1989-90) through current.
GPO Access: 103rd (1993-94) through current; Also track the life of a bill via GPO’s History of Bills (1983-2004; as taken from Congressional Record)
Westlaw: CONG-BILLTXT and US-BILLTRK for current Congress only;
previous 5 congresses available as CONG-BILLTXT104, CONG-BILLTXT105, CONGBILLTXT106, CONG-BILLTXT107, CONG-BILLTXT108
Lexis: BLTXT and BILLS (tracking) for current Congress only; BLREC - bills from 104th through 108th Congress.
American Memory (Lib. of Congress): House bills from the 6th Congress (1799-1800) through the 42nd Congress (1871-73); Senate bills from the 16th Congress (1819-20) through the 42nd Congress(1871-73).
Senate/House Committee Prints:
Because they are not widely published, committee prints can be difficult to obtain.
Online
GPO Access: 105th Congress (1997-98) through current.
Lexis: CMTPRN ; 104th Congress (1995-96) - 108th Congress (2003-04); not being updated.
Check the web sites of the authoring committees for links to committee prints:
House Committees Senate Committees
Various; KF 26 .A6; St. Louis; Compact shelving; Various, from 1969 through1983; Search our online catalog, WebCat, for specific titles or citations.
Microfiche
St. Louis; Media Room, under “Congressional Committee Publications”; From
97th Congress (1985-86) through current, though coverage and currency varies according to publication practices of committees.
Online
GPO Access: 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Westlaw: Transcript databases include USTESTIMONY (selected coverage 1993-96; full coverage from 1996 through current), CONGTMY (from 11/2004 through current), and USPOLTRANS (from 1994 through current).
Lexis: Transcript database at NNNTRAN (no longer being updated)
Senate/House Committee Reports:
U.S. Congressional Serial Set; KF12 .U5; St. Louis; Compact shelving; From 92nd Congress (1971-72) through 95 Congress (1974-75).
Microfiche
St. Louis; Media Room; Senate and House Reports; From 96th Congress (1983-84) through current.
Online
GPO Access: 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Thomas: 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Westlaw: LH - full coverage all reports from 1990 through current; also includes the reports published in the legislative history volumes of USCCAN back to 1948.
Lexis: CMTRPT - 101st Congress (1989-90; selective) through current.
Historial Serial Set: American Memory (Lib. of Congress): From 23rd Congress (1833-35) to 64th Congress (1915-17) with gaps.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set; KF12 .U5; St. Louis; Compact shelving; From 92nd Congress (1971-72) through 95 Congress (1974-75).
Microfiche
St. Louis; Media Room; Senate and House Documents - 96th Congress (1983-84) through current.
Online
GPO Access: 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Lexis: HSDOCS - 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Historical Serial Set: American Memory (Lib. of Congress): From 23rd Congress (1833-35) to 64th Congress (1915-17) with gaps.
Congressional Debates/Proceedings:
Congressional Record (permanent/hardbound); KF 35 .U58; Located in St. Louis and Kansas City. From 85th Congress (1957-58) through 104th Congress (1995-96), with gaps.
Congressional Record Index (permanent; with Daily Digest); KF 35 .U58; Located in St. Louis and Kansas City. From 85th (1957-58) Congress through 104th Congress (1995-96), with gaps
Congressional Record (daily edition/softbound); KF 35 .U58; Located in St. Louis, Kansas City, Little Rock, and Minneapolis. From 101st Congress, 2nd session (1990) through current.
Microfiche
Congressional Record (daily and permanent) - St. Louis; Media Room; From 86th Congress (1958-59) through current.
Online
Congressional Record on Thomas: 101st Congress (1989-90) through current.
Congressional Record on GPOAccess: 105th Congress (1994-95) through current.
Congressional Record on WL as CR: 99th Congress (1985-86) through current.
Congressional Record on Lexis as RECORD: 99th Congress (1985-86) through current.
Roll Call Votes (by bill number) on Thomas: 101st Congress (1989-90) through current.
Historical Proceedings: The predecessor publications to the Congressional Record include the Annals of Congress, the Register of Debates, the Congressional Globe. Searchable scans of these publications are available at the American Memory web site from Library of Congress.
Public Laws (“slip laws”); St. Louis; Main Stacks; KF 50 .U58 (pamphlets at end of U.S. Statutes at Large set)
Online
Thomas: 93rd Congress (1973-74) through current.
GPO Access: 104th Congress (1995-96) through current.
Westlaw: US-PL for current Congress only; US-PL-OLD for 1973 to 2004.
Lexis: PUBLAW - 100th Congress, 2nd session (1988) through current.
Unites States Statutes at Large; KF 50 .U58; from 1789 to current; located in all 8th Circuit libraries (except Cedar Rapids).
Online
Westlaw: US-STATLRG ; From 1789 to 1972 (provides pdf scans of originals)
Lexis: STATLG ; From 1789 to 2004.
American Memory (Lib. of Congress): From 1789-1875.
United States Code; KF 61 .A2; located in all 8th Circuit libraries.
United States Code Annotated (USCA); KF62.5 .W45; located in all 8th Circuit libraries.
United States Code Service (USCS); KF62 .L38; located in all 8th Circuit libraries except Cedar Rapids.
Online
House of Reps , LII , GPO
Westlaw: USCA - the current United States Code Annotated; Historical versions of USCA from 1990 through 2004 are available via the directory at this link.
Lexis: USCODE - the current United States Code Service; Historical versions of USCS from 1992 through 2004 are available at this link.
How to Find the Law, by Morris L. Cohen et al., West Publishing, St. Paul, MN 1989. Pages 217-260 address legislative history.
Cornell’s LII Legislative History Overview
Law Librarian’s Society of Washington D.C.
Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government (GPO)
How Our Laws Are Made (Senate Document 105-14)
Created November 2005. Updated April 2006.