COMPILED LEGISLATIVE HISTORIES

Tracking down all the documents which constitute a legislative history can be a very time intensive process. Fortunately, there are several tools which can help.

• CIS/Index, KF49 .C62, 6^th Floor - by far the most comprehensive tool for identifying and locating legislative histories. For all laws enacted since 1970, the CIS/Index gathers together all hearings, reports, debates and other documents which were generated as part of the enactment process. The set is divided into two parts. The first, called "Legislative Histories," is arranged by Public Law number and lists published documents for each piece of legislation. The second, entitled "Abstracts", contains a brief description of each of the documents listed in the "Legislative Histories" volume. The full texts of documents can then be found in microfiche format (also on the 6th floor). A sample legislative history from CIS can be found here.
• U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News ("USCCAN"), KF 48.W57, 9^th Floor - begun by West Publishing in 1948, USCCAN selectively reprints portions of the legislative histories for major pieces of legislation. Documents in USCCAN are also available through Westlaw (database ID USCCAN).
• Lexis - from the Legal tab, choose Federal Legal - U.S., then Legislative Histories & Materials for legislative histories for major pieces of legislation (e.g. the Clean Air Act).   Alternatively, search under Area of Law - by Topic.
• Westlaw - from the Directory, choose U.S. Federal Materials, then Legislative History & Bill Tracking, then choose Legislative History - Arnold & Porter Legislative History for Specific Acts to find comprehensive legislative histories for major pieces of legislation (e.g. the Americans with Disabilities Act) compiled by Arnold & Porter, a major Washington D.C. law firm.   Alternatively, from the main directory, search under Topical Materials by Area of Practice.
• LexisNexis Congressional, (formerly Congressional Universe) from the Library's Electronic Resources page (accessible on campus, or from off campus with valid network ID and password) - includes the CIS Index and many recent full text CIS documents.

Looking at one of the following indexes can give you an idea of whether a compiled legislative history exists, but keep in mind that not every item listed therein can be found in the Library:

• The GAO Legislative History Collection: Register of Public Laws, KF4 .G35 1991, Reference Desk
• Gray, Legislative History Union List of the Chicago Association of Law Libraries, KF4 .G73 2001, 9^th Floor
• Johnson, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories, KF 42.2, Reference Desk.
• Law Librarians Society of D.C., Union List of Legislative Histories, KF4 .U55 2000, Reference Desk.
• Reams, Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources, KF42.2 1994, 9^th Floor

 

Authors will frequently gather legislative history documents for major legislation. A keyword search in the Library's collections using WebVoyage, the Library's online catalog (e.g. "securities AND legislative history"), can help identify these books.

Previous (Public Laws) | Next (News)