Previously compiled legislative histories are generally available for major legislation in recent decades and can vary in completeness and complexity. They are harder to find for older legislations and for recently passed laws, however, if they do exist, they can be a goldmine of information.
When a law is passed and published as a Slip Law and in the Statutes at Large, brief legislative history information is included at the end of the statute. WestlawNext and LexisAdvance include this information at the end of the document when retrieved by Public Law number or the Statute at Large citation.
PDF versions of the Statutes at Large:
The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN) is published by Westlaw and contains certain collections of congressional and administrative materials from 1948 to present. USCCAN Legislative Histories may include:
USCCAN is available:
The “Legislation” link of Congress.gov provides legislative metadata and full text documents for every legislative measure introduced into the U.S. Congress since 1973. These “bill records” include a brief summary of the measure’s legislative history and may also include the text, any actions taken, titles, amendments, cosponsors, committees, and links to any related bills.
The Department of Justice has assembled and digitized a handful of compiled Legislative Histories on their website, www.justice.gov.
Commercial publishers often compile legislative histories for significant pieces of legislation. A few of the more common commercial collections include:
Don’t forget about Law Review articles. If someone has already written about a major piece of legislation, the footnotes of the law review article can hold several key citations to valuable legislative history documents. Use WestlawNext's Legal Resource Index to search law review articles published since 1980. Articles found in the Legal Resource Index (which sometimes provides the abstract only) are readily available in PDF format in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library.
The Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC (www.llsdc.org) maintains a Legislative Source Book containing a broad array of legislative history research information, tips, and tricks as well as complied legislative histories available from commercial and free sources.
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