lawyer

#Legislative History Research Guide

Table of Contents

This guide collects major sources for conducting legislative history research, including committee reports, hearings, bills, debates and more.

Introduction

Legislative history is a term that refers to the documents that are produced by Congress as a bill is introduced, studied and debated. These legislative documents are often used by attorneys and courts in an attempt to determine Congressional intent or to clarify vague or ambiguous statutory language. All legislative documents are only persuasive legal authority. The legislative process that produces these documents can be quite complex. For details of the legislative process, read How Our Laws Are Made. by Charles W. Johnson, Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives.

This guide will first discuss the types of documents  that come out of the legislative process and their use, and will then set out the methods of locating legislative documents for enacted and pending legislation. The Library has a comprehensive microfiche collection of legislative documents dating back to 1789 and finding aids both in print and on the web. Recent legislative documents are readily available on Congress.gov, ProQuest Congressional (formerly LexisNexis Congressional), Lexis, and Westlaw.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has also prepared a guide on Legislative History which is available here. For additional assistance with legislative research, stop by the Reference Desk in the Williams Reading Room.

Legislative Documents

Committee Reports  are usually considered the most important legislative documents and contain more analysis than the other documents. Bills and Congressional Debates  may also be relevant. The other legislative materials provide little information that would help you to determine legislative intent, although they often provide valuable background and factual information on the issue being addressed by the legislation.

If you are unsure about which Congress or year your law was passed, you may find it helpful to use the table of Years of Congress Conversion Table .

Bills

For purposes of legislative history research, comparing the various versions of a bill as it moved throughout the legislative process may help in determining the intended meaning of the law.

Introduction of a bill into Congress is the first step of the formal legislative process. After a bill is introduced, it is assigned a bill number, printed and referred to a committee. Bills are frequently amended throughout the legislative process and may be printed several times before they are finally passed. Comparing the various versions of a bill as it moved throughout the legislative process may help in determining the intended meaning of the law. Arguments regarding the meaning of a statutory section may be drawn based on the inclusion, deletion or modification of language in the text of the bill. Note, too, that the bill number is one of the keys to tracing legislative history.

Here are some of the first places to check for bills: