Legislative History Research Guide
Also see: Federal Legislative History on the Web mediasite presentation |
- The progress of a bill through the legislative process
- The documents created during that process:
- versions of bills and amendments, committee reports, debates, and hearings, etc.
- Attorneys can examine these documents in order to try and explain the meaning of a statute, if the statutory language is unclear. The documents can reveal the “legislative intent” of Congress.
- Useful for tracking legislation and lobbying.
- An example of a court citing to legislative history:
I. What is legislative history?
II. Why is legislative history important?
The House and Senate Reports accompanying the CTEA reflect no purpose to make copyright a forever thing. Notably, the Senate Report expressly acknowledged that the Constitution "clearly precludes Congress from granting unlimited protection for copyrighted works," S. Rep. No. 104-315, p. 11 (1996), and disclaimed any intent to contravene that prohibition, ibid. Members of Congress instrumental in the CTEA's passage spoke to similar effect. See, e.g., 144 Cong. Rec. H1458 (daily ed. Mar. 25, 1998) (statement of Rep. Coble) (observing that "copyright protection should be for a limited time only" and that "perpetual protection does not benefit society"). Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, 210 (U.S. 2003) |
III. What federal legislative history documents are available?
A. Chart – University of Michigan’s Legislative History Process - lists documents available at each step of the process
B. Below is a simplified version of this chart, showing the steps in the legislative process and the corresponding government publication. If you click on the type of publication, ex. bill, you can read more information about the publication and how to find the publication.
C. For a detailed explanation on how a bill becomes a law, see How Our Laws are Made from Thomas.gov. For a shorter explanation see Federal Legislative Process, Chicago-Kent College of Law
D. Quick guide:
Legislative Process |
Government Publication (click on the link for description of publication and places to find) |
Bill introduced and referred to committee |
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Committee may hold hearing |
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Committee may recommend passage |
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House/Senate debate and vote |
House/Senate Journal (procedural information) |
If differences in the version passed by House and Senate, bill(s) sent to conference committee |
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House/Senate debate and vote |
House/Senate Journal (procedural information) |
Bill becomes law (upon passage by House and Senate and president signs, or veto is overridden) |
Slip Law (Public Laws) >United States Statutes at Large>US Code** |
Veto message |
(Chart is from East Kentucky University Library's Legislative History)
IV. How newly enacted laws are published:
HOUSE BILL OR SENATE BILL - S. 659, 92nd Congress 2nd Session (1972). (House bills cited as H.R. xx).
PUBLIC LAW -Slip law - Enacts, repeals or modifies numerous U.S. code sections. Example: 92 P.L. 318, The Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX, § 901 |
- Annotated codes list the Public Laws that enacted or modified the code section.
- Note that titles and sections of Public Laws/Statutes at Large are not the same as titles and sections of the U.S. Code. For example compare Title IX cited above, dealing with equity in men's and women's sports in schools with Title IX of the U.S. Code, which deals with arbitration.
V. Persuasive Authority of Legislative History Documents
A. Legislative History documents are persuasive, not mandatory or binding on the court 
B. A minority of judges reject legislative history and rely only on the statutory language
“The law is what the law says, and we should content ourselves with reading it rather than psychoanalyzing those who enacted it.” Bank One Chicago, N.A. v. Midwest Bank & Trust Co., 516 U.S. 264, 279 (1996) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part)
(from Cynthia Pittson's Legislative History Research presentation)
C. Most important legislative history materials, in order:
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(Chart is from Ann Hemmens, Legislative History: Federal and Washington)
Why? In general, those groups of legislators that have been either most directly or most recently involved with the enactment are believed to have the best notion of the intent of the legislature. Also, the documents most recent in time are more likely to discuss the text of the bill in its final form. A hearing witness may have their own agenda, which is not reflective of Congressional intent.
- First, try to find compiled legislative histories. Compiled legislative histories are print or electronic collections of the legislative history documents pertaining to a piece of legislation. Lists of the legislative history documents available for a piece of legislation are also considered compiled legislative histories. Compiled legislative histories are usually only available for major legislation. How to find compiled legislative histories.
- If the Act is 1969 or later, first look at a "Legislative History" such as :1. CIS Legislative History - in print, 1984-; Lexis 1993-OR 2. LexisNexis Congressional 1969- (the ones from 1984 on should be the same the CIS versions). These reports list all the legislative history documents available for a particular piece of legislation. Electronic versions may even link to the documents. An example of a CIS Legislative History: LexisNexis® 103 CIS Legis. Hist. P.L. 272 .
- While not as comprehensive, Thomas Bill Summary and Status also lists legislative history documents for a piece of legislation. It lists related bills in the same Congressional session, relevant sections of the Congressional record, committee and conference reports, etc. Listed documents are linked to full text on the web, when available, roughly 1989-. Bill summary and status information is available back to 1973.
- For Acts earlier than 1969:(1) look in USCCAN, to find major legislative history documents. (2) Then look at CIS indexes including the US Congressional Committee Hearings Index, CIS index to unpublished US Senate committee hearings; CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. House of Representatives committee hearings and CIS United States Serial Set Index (index to committee reports). The indexes will refer you to the full text documents on microform. Alternatively, use Congressional Universe, which contains these Indexes and some full text documents. (3) See if there are more relevant bills in the session the legislation passed or prior sessions. The legislative history documents generated for these other bills may help, depending upon the similarity of the bill language. (4) Try to find relevant Congressional Record sections. See Finding older materials
- Look first for the documents that are the most persuasive. If you find enough in the more persuasive documents, it is not necessary to look at documents that are not as persuasive.
- Lexis and Westlaw have legislative history documents from approximately the mid 80s. Westlaw has links to some legislative history documents right on the side of the Public Law!
- Quick hints for searching on GPO Access and Thomas.gov: Use the Thomas Bill Summary and Status, which links to legislative history documents. Use GPO Access for committee hearing transcripts and documents. See powerpoint presentation: Free Federal Legislative History Sources on the Web or mediasite presentation: Federal Legislative History on the Web
- If you know the U.S. Code Section:
- In an annotated copy of the U.S. Code, look at the History section after the text of the U.S. Code Section. Example: LexisNexis® 49 USC 44902
- Examine each Public Law to determine whether the public law created or changed the USC subsection in question, and whether the change was substantial or relevant to your issue.
- If you know the topic or name of the Act:
- Search for the act title or key words in an electronic database of Public Laws or Statutes at Large
- Search the topical index of the Serial Set (can search multiple years at once) or paper USCCAN (must search year by year)
- Thomas - Search legislation in current Congress by keywords or bill number.
- Any of the sources for bills that contain current bills can be used too.
- To find pending bills on a particular topic, try: United State Senate: Active Legislation
- GovTrack.us - Track pending legislation by RSS feed. (free service).
- You can also track bills by using LexisNexis / Westlaw "Saved Searches".
VI. How do I find federal legislative history documents?
1. Determine Which Public Laws are Relevant:
2. Is a compiled legislative history available? How to find compiled legislative histories. Available only for major legislation
3. You may need the bill number to find legislative history documents, particularly if using the Serial Set or Committee Hearing Index or LexisNexis Congressional. The Statutes at Large, USCCAN and the CIS Legislative Histories indicate the bill number.
4. How old are the Public Laws? If 1969 or newer, use a "legislative history" , if available, which will list all relevant legislative history documents. For Acts earlier than 1969: (1) look in USCCAN, (United States Code Congressional and Administrative News) to find major legislative history documents. (2) Then look at CIS indexes including the US Congressional Committee Hearings Index, CIS index to unpublished US Senate committee hearings; CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. House of Representatives committee hearings and CIS United States Serial Set Index (index to committee reports). The indexes will refer you to the full text documents on microform. Alternatively, use Congressional Universe, which contains these Indexes and some full text documents. (3) Try to find relevant Congressional Record sections.
5. Find more relevant bill numbers, if any. Look in both the Congress where the legislation was passed and prior Congresses. CIS Legislative History will list relevant bill numbers. Hearing transcripts may list related bills. LexisNexis Congressional Universe can be searched for related/similar bills. If the language of the bill that passed and other versions of the bill are very similar, legislative history documents issued in conjunction with other versions of the bill may help.
VII. How to find Pending Bills
Sue Altmeyer, JD, MLS, Electronic Services Librarian
Laura E. Ray, MA, MLS,
Educational Programming Librarian
February 2008