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 Histories1789 - 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.
