Research Guides: Guide to Researching US Tax Policy: 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

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.
Bill Tracking Report - Current Congress (Nexis Uni)
Use the bill tracking report 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.
Westlaw -- Federal Bill Tracking
Law students, faculty & staff only. Bill Tracking - Federal - Summaries and statutes includes summaries and status information concerning legislation introduced in the current congressional session.

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
Coverage: 1986-

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
Law students, faculty & staff only. 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
Law students, faculty & staff only. 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.
Ohio Bill Tracking Reports on Nexis Uni
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. Consequently, the full text of the bill should be retrieved and reviewed for any changes to the language of the bill. Goes back to 1989

Other States

Nexis Uni State Bill tracking
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

Luckily for you, tax is one of those areas where precompiled legislative histories are plentiful! This means someone else has already done the hard work of gathering together or finding documents that reveal legislative intent.

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
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."

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.
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.

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.

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).

Joint Committee Bluebooks

The Joint Committee on Taxation publishes explanations of major tax acts. These are known as “Blue Books.” These are not legislative history but they are often persuasive to courts with respect to legislative intent. You can find the Blue Books at:

Joint Committee on Taxation
The Joint Committee on Taxation publishes explanations of major tax acts. These are known as “Blue Books.”
CCH AnswerConnect - JTC Bluebooks
Joint Committee on Taxation Prints (Bluebooks) on Westlaw
Law students, faculty & staff only. Contains Prints from the joint committee on Taxation (JCX) and from the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). These committee prints publish opinions and advice from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to the House and Senate tax committee members on various tax issues. Coverage begins in 1976 for the Bluebooks (JCS documents); coverage begins in 1992 for all other JCS and JCX documents.