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:

Tracking Bills

Federal

ProQuest Congressional Publications

Ohio

Hannah Capitol Connection

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
- Bill Tracking Databases

Legislative History Compilations

Arnold & Porter Legislative Histories on Westlaw
Law students, faculty & staff. Federal legislative histories on selected subjects compiled by the law firm of Arnold & Porter.
GAO Federal Legislative Histories on Westlaw
Law students & faculty only. 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.
HeinOnline U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
The U.S. Federal Legislative History Library provides a variety of complied legislative histories and also includes the database "Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories."
HeinOnline Taxation & Economic Reform in America Parts I & II
This historical archive contains more than 4,000 volumes and one million pages of legislative history materials and other documents. It includes the complete Carlton Fox Collection which contains nearly 42 years of historical legislation related to the internal revenue laws from 1909-1950. It includes more than 100 other legislative histories related to taxation, economic reform, and stimulus plans

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. Users can search an index of congressional publications from 1970 to the present¸ retrieve CIS Legislative Histories for public laws going back to 1970¸ find testimony from congressional hearings¸ track bills as they move through the House and Senate¸ search the Congressional Record and Federal Register¸ locate information about members and committees¸ and search the National Journal.
ProQuest Legislative Insight
Congress produces a variety of publications as a bill moves through the legislative process on its way to becoming a law. A compilation of these full text primary source publications produces a legislative history that is valuable to a wide variety of researchers. Legislative Insight offers a research citation page that not only links to the full text of the associated primary source publications¸ but allows users to do a Search Within from that very page that searches the full text of all the associated publications with one-click. Full-text publication types associated with a legislative history include the Public Law¸ all versions of enacted and related bills¸ Congressional Record excerpts¸ and committee hearings¸ reports¸ and documents.

Check OneSearch 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).