About Legislative Histories
A legislative history chronicles the development of a public law from its introduction as a bill (or as multiple bills) to its enactment. It usually cites such publications as House/Senate reports, hearings, the Congressional Record, and presidential remarks. Depending on the scope of the legislation, it can be lengthy or relatively brief. In locating a legislative history, it's very helpful to know the Public Law or Statute number of the law in question.
*Note:
While ProQuest Legislative Insight is the best database for legislative histories, some laws passed before 1969 may be difficult to find.
Most public laws contain a much-abbreviated legislative history on their final page.
Some legislative histories have been published as independent monographs. See the Print section below for finding aids.
Legislative Histories : Online Sources (CU subscription)
- Proquest Legislative InsightA companion database to Proquest Congressional, covers 27,000 laws, including all CIS histories from 1970-current (many with updated research and indexing) and approximately 18,000 new histories from 1789-1969.
- Hein OnlineFrom the landing page, scroll down to find Federal Legislative Histories
Federal legislative histories published by the U.S. GPO and private publishers, this library also includes a unique finding aid based on Nancy Johnson's award-winning work, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories." [Hein Online]
Legislative Histories : Print Sources
Sources of compiled legislative histories: A bibliography of government documents, periodical articles, and books, 1st Congress-113th Congress.
Pt. 1. Commercial and government compilations of legislative histories
Legislative history collections covering specific subject matter arranged by topic, not by Public Law number
Background readings on legislative histories: a selective bibliography
Pt. II. Sources of compiled legislative histories arranged by Public Law number
Pt. III. Author-title index (to Part I)
Public Law index (to Part II).
Series:
AALL publications series ; no. 14.
Notes:
"Sponsored by the American Association of Law Libraries."
Revision of the 2nd edition (W.S. Hein, 2012).Union List of Legislative Histories
1789 - 1998 (1st - 105th Cong.) Compiled by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. Inc.: Legislative Research Special Interest Section.
Provides a listing of the libraries in the D.C. area that have compiled in-house legislative histories or have acquired published histories for particular laws of the United States.
Please note: It is possible that some of these print histories are no longer in some libraries' holdings.