Research Guides: Law Research Assistant Guide to the Law Library: Legislative History & Bill Tracking

Overview

Legislative history refers to the documents produced by the legislature as a bill is introduced, studied and debated. The intent of the legislature is one of the arguments you can use when arguing how a ambiguous statute should be interpreted. Legislative histories for major laws are sometimes compiled and published in a single collection. These compilations can be very helpful because they gather all of the legislative sources relating to a law in one place. Therefore, it may be worth your while to determine if one of these exists before attempting to compile the sources on your own.

For information on finding legislative history, use the following research guides & resources:

Ohio Legislative History Guide - by Ron Jones
Federal Legislative History Guide This guide is designed to help you understand the Federal Legislative process as well as what documents comprise a legilative history. It covers the major print materials, free web sources, and online databases. The guide can be used by students, faculty members, lawyers, and the general public.
CRS Report: Legislative History Research A Basic Guide
State Legislative History Guides This resource was created in 2001 to index legislative history guides for all 50 states.

Tracking Bills

Federal

Congress.gov (Library of Congress) - "Congress.gov is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information. The site provides access to accurate, timely, and complete legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public."
GovTrack.us GovTrack.us, is a project of Civic Impulse, LLC. It brings together the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records, congressional district maps, and more. Use GovTrack to track bills for updates or get alerts about votes with email updates and RSS feeds. It also has unique statistical analyses to put the information in context
Lexis - Bill Tracking Report - Current Congress Law students & faculty only. Use bill track to follow a bill in the complicated path from its introduction through the hearing process, to mark up, to floor vote, to signature by the President. At any time you can find out the latest status on a bill, who has added their name to a bill by becoming a co-sponsor, or link to the full text of the bill, the Congressional Record, or a vote report. In addition, bill tracking will alert you whenever a change has occurred on a bill -from a change in committee referral to passage by a chamber or signature by the President.
Westlaw -- Federal Bill Tracking Bill Tracking - Federal - Summaries and statutes includes summaries and status information concerning legislation introduced in the current congressional session.

ProQuest Congressional Publications Provides daily updated information¸ including full text of bills starting in 1989¸ public laws starting in 1988¸ committee reports starting in 1990¸ House and Senate documents starting in 1995¸ Congressional hearings starting in 1987-88¸ Congressional Record starting in 1985¸ Federal Register starting in 1980¸ National Journal starting in 1977 and other government information.

Ohio

Hannah Capitol Connection Ohio leglislative and governmental information service¸ including bill tracking¸ the full text of bills¸ the administrative code and revised code¸ committee rosters¸ and legislator information. Search by bill number or keyword. (1989 - present)

Ohio General Assembly Recent Ohio Senate and House bills are posted for free on the General Assembly Web site. Search by bill number or bill sponsor. (1997 - present)
Ohio Bill Tracking Reports on Lexis Advance The Ohio Bill Tracking content contains a summary and legislative chronology of all pending Ohio legislation in the current legislative session and all prior sessions. Changes made to bills during the legislative process are not reflected in the SYNOPSIS section of the bill tracking report. The full text of the bill should be retrieved and reviewed for any changes to the language of the bill. Current session's legislative session back through 1989.
Ohio Bill Tracking -- Full Text on Westlaw Full text of all available bills (introduced, amended, and enacted versions) from the current and recently-ended sessions of the Ohio Legislature. This category page is updated daily.

Other States

Lexis & Westlaw – just as Lexis & Westlaw have bill tracking for Federal material, they also have it for the states. Locate the appropriate jurisdiction to find the applicable database.
State websites – many state websites have bill tracking capabilities.
National Conference of State Legislatures, http://www.ncsl.org
- Hover over Research > Click on Bill Tracking

Legislative History Compilations

HeinOnline U.S. Federal Legislative History Library ( UC students & faculty) The U.S. Federal Legislative History Library provides a variety of complied legislative histories and also includes the database "Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories".ProQuest Congressional
ProQuest Congressional (must be on-campus or UC students & faculty) offers a large collection of complied legislative histories. You can search various ways including (but not limited to): keyword, bill number, or Public Law or Statute at Large Number.
Coverage: 1790-
Westlaw
- GAO Federal Legislative Histories (Westlaw Database Identifier FED-LH)
  - Legislative histories for most U.S. Public Laws enacted from 1921 to 1995, and PL 104-191, as compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Arnold & Porter legislative history
  - Federal legislative histories compiled by the law firm of Arnold & Porter.
Check UCLID for books in our collection:
- In the keyword search fields, enter the name of the law or topic you are searching, and the words "legislative history" (include the quotation marks).