Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent

By Richard J. McKinney* and Ellen Sweet**
Part of LLSDC's Legislative Source Book
© 2001 Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. Last revised in July 2015.

Detailed Outline with Links to Written Narrative

A. Introduction: What Federal Legislative Histories Are and How They Are Used
    1. Compilation of related legislative docs that precede the enactment of a U.S. public law
    2. Used by federal agencies, attorneys and courts to interpret a law
        a. At the least tells you general purpose of a law or particular title in a law
        b. Usually harder to decipher legislative intent in smaller provisions in a law
    3. Controversy about relying on documents that are not enactments
        a. Many law journal articles written debating the merits of leg. histories
        b. Recent critics, textualists like Justice Scalia, have dampened use in courts
        c. See bibliography of selected law journal articles  

B. The Federal Legislative Process and Legislative History Documents 
    1. Typically a bill is introduced, numbered sequentially & referred to committee(s)
        GPO prints bill, and frequently an intro statement & sometimes the text, summary &
        correspondence in Cong. Record, especially on the Senate side)
    2. Possible committee action on bill (most see no action unless chair is sponsor/cosponsor)
        a. Possible subcommittee hearings and markup of bill. Amended bill not printed yet.
        b. Hearings usually published months later.
        c. Committee web sites usually have prepared testimony & webcasts.
        d. FNS & FDCH (now CQ) have selected unofficial transcripts & most all prepared
            testimony
        e. Possible cmte hearings and markup - recent text of amdts avail. from CQ Roll Call
        f. Unofficial (CQ, NJ) & official summaries of markups may be available
        g. After markup, committee orders bill reported as amended; not yet officially reported
        h. May wait a day or weeks for official reported text & its accompanied cmte report
        i. Committee report (numbered sequentially) has explanation/summary - key
    3. Bill is brought up by chamber leadership for floor action
        a. House Rules Cmte may submit resolution with specific rules for bill consideration
            (the resolution and an accompanying report is printed, resolution also printed in C.R.)
        b. House resolution on the rule will be debated and adopted before bill considered (C.R.)
        c. Senate will allow unlimited amdts & debate unless cloture motion adopted by 60%
        d. Senate will also take up by unanimous consent; House by Committee of the Whole
        e. The House or Senate considers, debates, amends and passes the bill (see C.R.)
        f. The "engrossed" bill (now called an Act) as passed is printed in the Cong. Record
    4. Bill (Act) is referred to the other chamber and is printed as referred by GPO.
        a. Similar process occurs in the other body - committee & floor consideration
        b. Other chamber may report & pass its own bill first (see Cong. Record).
        c. May then pass the referred bill deleting all after enacting clause & insert own bill.
        d. Usually they just pass the other chamber's bill or make few amdts before sending back.
        e. Sometimes GPO publishes engrossed amdts of the Act as passed by other chamber.
        f. If cannot agree a conference is requested, accepted, & conferees appointed (C.R.).
    5. Conferees deliberate, come to agreement - conference report submitted to both chambers
        a. Conference report containing agreed text & explanatory statement always in C. R.
        b. Conference report also published as a House report (sometimes also as Senate
            doc/rept)
        c. Conference report debated and agreed to by both chambers no amdts permitted (C.R.)
    6. Enrolled version of bill (Act) prepared, signed & sent to President
        a. Enrolled version not printed but available electronically (same pagination as law)
        b. President has 10 days (Sundays/holidays excluded) to sign, veto, or pocket veto bill.
        c. If President signs, may prepare a signing statement (see Compilation of Pres. Docs).
        d. Law becomes effective upon President's signature unless specified otherwise.
        e. Office of Fed. Register assigns public law # and statute pages (takes a few days).
        f. Few weeks or months later the law is published as a slip law in pamphlet form by GPO
           and later in United States Statutes At Large (same pagination as slip law).  

Compiling a Federal Legislative History from Older Records

In compiling legislative histories for older (pre 1970) U.S. public laws, the first priority is to find the public law number (or statute citation) and from it the bill number that was signed into law which you can use as a key to find the legislative actions on the bill. If you know the popular name of an Act you can generally find its public law number in the Popular Names Table of United States Code (U.S.C.) or in the Popular Name table of the commercially produced United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) or the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.). The table or the index to the Code will also cite to the U.S. Code sections where each part of a law that is general and continuing was assigned by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives according to its subject matter. The parenthetical note following each U.S. Code section will tell you what public laws amended or established that section and further historical notes will briefly explain how each amendment changed that section.

Be careful in using notes within U.S. Code titles that have been revised, codified and enacted into positive law, as any public law citations in notes to them will only go back as far the Act which established the new codification. Reviser notes to these sections will tell you which acts (and which older Code sections) the new section came from but not how each changed the section (see page 3 of United States Code: Historical Outline and Explanatory Notes). These officially codified titles are not intended to change the law. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, which prepares U.S. Code revisions, will generally only reorganize and perhaps rephrase the law to make it more coherent and consistent. Thus in order to find the true statutory origin of a certain section of the Code for which a title has been officially codified (and the appropriate laws to research for legislative history purposes) you will need to check that section's revision notes to find the older Code section(s) and statutes from which it was derived (they sometimes reuse the older Code sections). You may then want to obtain a copy of an earlier Code before it was codified into positive law and review the text of the earlier code section as well as any historical notes explaining amendment changes over time. The titles of the U.S. Code that have been revised, codified and enacted into positive law include titles 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 46, 49, 51, and 54. Also, Title 26, although not enacted, mirrors the Internal Revenue Code, which has been enacted into positive law. For further information see United States Code: List of Positive Law Titles with Enacting Cites and Location to Revision Notes.

If you have the public law number (used officially since 1957 but applied uniquely to U.S. public laws since 1908), then from it you can access a variety of sources to find the bill number that was enacted and from it find the chronologies of actions taken on the bill. These include the biennial CCH Congressional Index which is a loose-leaf service published since 1941 with a chronological history on each bill (including, what few other indices note, the committee and beginning date that hearings were held on a bill). There is also the final House Calendar published for each Congress since the 1920's (officially called Calendars of the United States House of Representatives and History of Legislation: Final Edition), which shows a chronology on each bill having some action. Another reference tool is the Digest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, produced from 1955 to 1989 by the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service (CRS). This publication series includes summaries and floor action listings on each measure introduced from the 84th Congress to the 101st Congress. The Library of Congress Internet service, Congress.gov, continues to make these CRS summaries and floor action listings available for each bill and resolution from 1973 to the present and from 1979 to the present the service includes detailed bill status chronologies (with committees and dates of hearings noted).

A convenient source for legislative history references is in the notes of the United States Statutes At Large. Since 1975 the Statutes At Large gives brief legislative history references on the final page to each U.S. public law, including bill numbers, committee report numbers and dates of floor consideration or passage. The bill number or joint resolution that was enacted into law is also placed in the margin at the beginning of each law included in the Statutes At Large since 1904. Information on corresponding bill numbers for U.S. laws prior to 1904 (the 58th Congress) are laid out in a publication by Eugene Nabors entitled Legislative Reference Checklist: the Key to Legislative Histories from 1789 to 1903, Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1982 (no longer in print but available in the HeinOnline's Legislative History Library). The U.S. Statutes At Large is available from 1789 in PDF on certain commercial databases including HeinOnline, Lexis, and Westlaw and from 1789 to 1875 in the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress.  Committee reports that accompany many bills may also have a section that shows how existing law would be changed by the committee's proposed legislation.

However, probably the key tool for finding related legislative history documents to U.S. public laws before 1970 is the bound "Congressional Record Index", especially its accompanying "History of Bills and Resolutions". The index and history of House and Senate bills has been produced for each congressional session since the Congressional Record began in 1873. It is generally placed in the last (or second to last) part in the bound volume series of the Congressional Record that is published for each congressional session. Usually each congressional session covers one year, but before 1941 a biannual Congress frequently had more than two sessions and sessions did not normally begin in January. See Sessions of Congress with Corresponding Debate Record Volume Numbers.

The "Congressional Record Index" and the "History of Bills and Resolutions" are available on GPO's FDsys from 1983 (98th Congress) forward, but for the daily edition only, which has a completely different pagination from the bound edition. Since 1967, the daily edition of the Congressional Record has placed a letter in front of the page number signifying different sections -- S for Senate section, H for House section, E for Extension of Remarks section, and D for Daily Digest section. In contrast, the bound edition is in straight numeric pagination and integrates House and Senate pages together on a daily basis. Before 1968, the daily edition was also in straight numeric pagination but the page numbers do not correspond to the page numbers in the bound edition. Also before 1968 the Extension of Remarks section (usually only inserted by members of the House) was published as an appendix to the Record which in the past was not always included in the bound Congressional Record (see An Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications). The daily edition of the Congressional Record is available electronically on GPO FDsys from and on Congress.gov from 1995 and in searchable text on both Lexis and Westlaw from 1985 forward, and from 1980 on HeinOnline. The bound Congressional Record and its predecessor publications is available online commercially on HeinOnline and Proquest.  GPO FDsys has available the a digital bound edition from 1999.

The "History of Bills and Resolutions" at the end of each index provides Congressional Record page numbers (but no the dates before 1993) for actions on a specific bill. Noted are page numbers for when a bill is introduced, reported from committee (with the report number) and considered on the House or Senate floors. It also notes the conference report number and the page numbers in the Record showing where the conference report was considered as well as page numbers noting when House and Senate officials signed the enrolled bill just before sending it to the President. Finally, it gives the page number noting when a bill was signed into law and the public law number. Frequently the page numbers noting House or Senate floor consideration only present the beginning page number but consideration could have continued for multiple pages. The "History of Bills and Resolutions" does not note committee hearings or companion measures in the other chamber or similar measures introduced in the same chamber. However, the "Congressional Record Index" of subjects and names will assist you in finding related measures and remarks not noted in the "History of Bills and Resolutions".

The "Congressional Record Daily Digest" volume part, placed at the end of each Congressional Record volume after 1947, summarizes daily floor action and notes committee actions and hearings for that day. The text of committee hearings and committee reports are not normally placed in the Congressional Record with the exception of conference reports and occasional excerpts of congressional testimony. The text of committee hearings and committee prints are published as separate paper bound copies (tan outside binding for large House hearings and green for Senate). Although committees may number their hearings and prints in a series, they are normally published in single paper bound copies. Some hearings may be only some 20 or 30 pages in length while others that were held over many days may be issued in a number of volumes or parts and each part may be several hundred pages in length.

Unlike congressional hearings, most all numbered committee reports and House and Senate numbered documents are placed in the voluminous United States Congressional Serial Set, which has been published since 1817 and now has over 14,000 volumes. As committee reports and other documents are considered critical to most legislative histories, the U.S. Serial Set is of immeasurable value in legislative research. If you are able to obtain a committee report number you can take that number and look it up in an index to find out which volume of the U.S. Serial Set contains the specific report or document you need. Indices to the U.S. Serial Set include the CIS U.S. Serial Set Index (1789-1969) which now has a very useful bill number index arranged by Congress. Also there is the "Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes" published by GPO for the years 1933-1980 (73rd - 96th Congresses) and republished in three volumes by William S. Hein & Co. A U.S. Serial Set supplement was published by GPO for the 97th Congress (1981-1982) with an addendum entitled "Numerical Lists of the Documents and Reports". Beginning with the 98th Congress (1983-1984), GPO has produced a catalog volume of all documents and reports issued each cxongress. It is entitled United States Congressional Serial Set Catalog. At the start of each volume is a "Numerical List of Documents and Reports" and a "Schedule of Serial Set Volumes".  The schedule of volumes of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set from 1970 to the present as well an overview of the Serial Set is available on LLSDC's Legislative Source Book.

Sometimes the text of bills as introduced is reprinted in related hearing documents, but usually in order to obtain the text of old congressional bills and resolutions you generally have to go to a microform set of them. However, in 2013 Proquest created a digital library of most Congressional bills from 1789 to the present.  The Law Library of Congress has two sets of Congressional bills on microform and also maintains a bound hardcopy set of most all Congressional bills from the 6th Congress forward. Some libraries around the country have also acquired these microform sets, and a search on OCLC with the phrase "bills and resolutions" should reveal most of those libraries.  Finally, between the 96th Congress and the 106th Congress (1979-2000) the Government Printing Office has published all House and Senate bills on microfiche with a final cumulative finding aid for each congressional session. Many federal depository libraries around the country have this series in their depository collection. See Sources for the Text of Congressional Bills and Resolutions.

Thousands of bill files from previous congresses are maintained at the Center for Legislative Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (1-202-501-5350). Pursuant to congressional instructions, most Senate archives are available to researchers after 20 years have past and most House archives are available after 30 years. The documents generally come from congressional committees but the quality and quantity of material sent to the National Archives may differ significantly according to the policies and practices of a chamber and those of the committee at the time they are sent. The papers of individual members of Congress are not sent to the National Archives but may be stored in local libraries or other establishments. At the Center, those researching the legislative history of a public law may find the text of related bills as well as correspondence to a House or Senate committee concerning it. The Center is also likely to have committee hearings and other documents related to the legislation.

Before the government began publishing the Congressional Record in 1873 there were various private publishers of congressional proceedings and debates. The most noteworthy of these are the Annals of Congress (1789-1824, published retrospectively by Gales and Seaton), the Register of Debates (1824-1837, published each session by Gales and Seaton), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873, published weekly by Blair and Rives). The debates in these publications were often news summaries or selected speeches (sometimes called sketches) rather than verbatim remarks and each volume (normally organized by congressional session) has an attached index. The Library of Congress has optically scanned these early records in its American Memory Project's A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation. Although generally legible, these optically scanned documents (with quite small print) are not full text searchable, but they do have various indices as "navigators" to the system. Many libraries around the country also hold these old series in paper or microform.

The Constitution of the United States (Article I, section 5) requires that congressional proceedings be published in a House Journal and a Senate Journal, but these journals, still being published since 1789, do not reproduce any congressional debate. The journals merely publish the daily minutes on what measures were introduced, what measures passed, what appointees were confirmed, what communications were received, what votes were taken, and so on. However there is an index to each journal volume and a tabular index showing what actions were taken on bills and resolutions and on what page number of the journal that action is related. Since predecessor publications to the Congressional Record did not (until 1867) have any history of bills and resolutions, these journals can be an aid in early legislative history research, but for the most part the contents of the journals are covered in the Congressional Record. Before 1954 House and Senate journals were published as part of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Indices to the House Journal are available on GPO Access from 1991 to the last completed Congress.

For researching early Congressional documents, there is no substitute for the legislative indices produced by the Congressional Information Service (CIS) and now under Proquest Congressional umbrella. Proquest also supplies the CIS Microfiche Library of full-text documents in microfiche of items cited in its indices. For instance there are the CIS U.S. Serial Index and the CIS Serial Set on Microfiche (1789-1969). The new Part 13 (in four volumes) to the Serial Set index is organized by bill number in each Congress and shows related report numbers, even to reports (1817-1845) that may not have originally included the bill number to which they pertain. Proquest has digitized (in PDF) its CIS Serial Set microfiche (1789-1969) so that congressional reports associated with bills that were enacted can be easily accessed by public law number (only available on LexisNexis Congressional). There is also the CIS Congressional Hearings Index and Microfiche (1833-1969), the CIS Unpublished Senate Committee Index and Microfiche (1823-1972), the CIS Unpublished House Committee Hearings Index and Microfiche (1833-1958), the CIS Congressional Committee Prints Index and Microfiche (1830-1969), and the CIS Senate Executive Documents and Reports Index and Microfiche (1817-1969). Most of these indices and documents are available online on Proquest Congressional. 

Many older legislative documents including bills, reports, hearings, the Congressional Record and other items, can also be located in the federal depository libraries, as well libraries in law firms, federal agencies, U.S. courts, universities, and local governments around the country. For information on such documents in libraries in the Washington, D.C. area, see LLSDC's Union List of Legislative Documents.