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A National AgLaw Center Research Publication


Federal Legislative History: A Guide to Resources

Revised 2011

Sally J. Kelley
Librarian and Research Professor
National Agricultural Law Center
Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Definition of Legislative History
III. Parts of a Legislative History
A. Bill Text
B. Congressional Committee Reports
C. Congressional Debates
D. Congressional Committee Hearings
E. Other Documents
     1. Congressional Committee Prints
     2. House and Senate Documents
     3. Presidential Signing Statements
IV. Compiled Legislative Histories
V. Public Laws
VI. Additional Information
VII. Web Bibliography


I. Introduction

This guide to federal legislative history resources is intended for attorneys, students, scholars, and anyone else conducting legislative history research or looking for publications, such as Congressional committee reports, that are normally found in a legislative history. This guide covers materials in the Young Law Library and/or Mullins Library at the University of Arkansas, free on the Internet, and through various commercial electronic services or products such as Westlaw, Lexis, LexisNexis Congressional, HeinOnline, and Readex. Hypertext links are provided to all electronic resources. Electronic resources that are available freely on the Web are so labeled.

Before compiling a legislative history containing the various types of publications below, the user will want to start with IV. Compiled Legislative Histories to determine whether one is already available. The researcher will also want to consult V. Public Laws A. United States Statutes at Large for the text of the public law.

This guide covers the major types of publications in a legislative history. Under each type (committee reports, hearings, Congressional Record, documents, prints, Presidential signing statements), the first section lists full-text resources and their dates of coverage with links to electronic sources. The second section lists aids for identifying bibliographic information to assist in locating items in the full-text sources or for use in obtaining them through interlibrary loan or other means.

The public law number or bill number is needed or helpful in locating most types of publications covered in this guide, including the compiled legislative histories. If the researcher knows the name of a public law but not the public law number, V. Public Laws B. Searching by Popular Name for a Public Law Number should be helpful. If a bill number is needed as an identification key, consult III. A. 2. on identifying bill numbers.

See VII. Web Bibliography below for Web addresses of each electronic resource mentioned.

II. Definition of Legislative History

Legislative history is "the term used to designate the documents that contain the information considered by the legislature prior to deciding whether to enact a law." (Mersky and Dunn, p. 181).

The purpose of legislative history research is generally to find the intent of a law or the meaning of certain provisions of a law. Attorneys in particular research legislative history because courts often look for the intent of a law. Intent may be found in the language of the bill as introduced, the subsequent amendments, the reports of legislative committees to which the bill was assigned, and other legislative documents issued in consideration of the bill. For additional information regarding federal legislative history research and federal law making, see VI Additional Information below.

III. Parts of a Legislative History

A. Bill Text. The language of the bill as introduced and its subsequent amendments and versions can be compared with the final language of the law as passed.

  1. Find the text of all versions of a bill in the following sources:

    House Bills and Senate Bills, U.S. GPO (Government Printing Office) microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1979-2000 . NOTE: Identification aids are in the notebooks labeled Finding Aid-Bills on the microfiche cabinets.

    Web [free] (see Web Bibliography below for URLs): Thomas, 1989- ; FDsys, 1993- ; Library of Congress, House bills, selected Congresses 1799-1873; Senate bills, selected Congresses 1819-1873.

    ProQuest Congressional, 1989- .

    WESTLAW: US GAO Federal Legislative Histories: Fed-LH: most laws enacted 1921-1995. Find desired law; then locate desired bill version.

    WESTLAW: Congressional Bills: Current Congress CONGBILLTXT; and previous Congresses: CONG-BILLTXT110 2007-2008, CONG-BILLTXT109 2005-2006, CONG-BILLTXT108 2003-2004, CONG-BILLTEX107 2001-2002, CONG-BILLTXT106 1999-2000, CONG-BILLTXT105 1997-1998, CONG-BILLTXT104 1995-1996.

    LEXIS: Congressional bills for each Congress from 1989 forward: current Congress (BLTXT); and individual Congresses 1989- (BTX111, BTX110, BTX109, BTX108, BTX107, BTX106, BTX105, BTX104, BTX103, BTX102, BTX101).

  2. Indentification aids for bill numbers:

    The bill number, i.e. H.R. 2323 or S. 201, is a key to finding bill text in the resources above. Identification aids for bill numbers include many of the legislative history resources listed in IV. Compiled Legislative Histories below and the following collections of public law. In many of the resources below, the bill number can be found in the margin at the beginning of the act and in the legislative history at the end of the act.

    United States Statutes at Large and slip laws. KF50. LAW LIBRARY 1789- ; Mullins MAIN GOVREF 1937- . Gives bill numbers for laws enacted 1904 forward. See IV. A. United States Statutes at Large for additional information and electronic versions.

    HeinOnline: Legislative Reference Checklist: The Key to Legislative Histories from 1789-1903. Identifies bill numbers for each law 1789 to 1903.

    United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.). KF48.U5. LAW LIBRARY 1948- .

    United States Code Congressional News. KF48.U5. LAW LIBRARY 1944-1947.

    Web [free]: FDsys, public (slip) laws 1995- .

    ProQuest Congressional: public laws 1988- ; Statutes at Large 1879- .

    WESTLAW: US-PL, current Congress; US-PL-OLD, 1973-previous Congress; USCCAN-PL, 1973- .

    LEXIS: USCS-Public Laws (PUBLAW) 1988- .

B. Congressional Committee Reports are often considered very important documents in researching legislative intent. House and Senate committee reports are issued when a committee recommends passage of the bill. The committee gives its rationale in this report. When a bill has been passed by both houses in different versions, a conference committee reconciles the different language and issues a conference report with the new version and explanatory statements.

  1. Sources for text of congressional committee reports:

    U.S. Congressional Serial Set

    U.S. Congressional Serial Set, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1979- .
    U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Mullins US DOC-COMPACT 1817-1969; scattered holdings 1970-1980.
    Web [free]: Thomas, 1995- ; FDsys, 1995- ; Library of Congress, selected reports 1833-1917.
    Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set Index Online, 1817-1980.

    American State Papers

    American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States ... J33 .A48. Mullins SPEC COLL-OV 1789-1838.
    Web [free]: American State Papers (Library of Congress), 1789-1838.
    HeinOnline: American State Papers, 1789-1838.
    Readex American State Papers Online, 1789-1838.

    ProQuest Congressional/CIS

    CIS Microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1985- .
    ProQuest Congressional: Selected committee reports 1990; all 1991- ; digitized 1980- ; abstracts 1970- .

    LEXIS: Committee Reports (CMTRPT), selected 1990-1992; all 1993- .

    U.S.C.C.A.N./WESTLAW

    United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.). KF48.U5. LAW LIBRARY 1948-. Although all committee reports are listed for each statute, only selected committee reports, usually one per statute, and the conference report, if any, are reprinted here.

    WESTLAW: LH. For 1948-1989, LH contains only the reports reprinted in U.S.C.C.A.N. (see above). For 1990- , LH provides all Congressional committee reports, including those issued for bills which did not become law. USCCAN-REP provides a template to search for these committee reports by public law number, bill number, popular name, report number, and USCCAN cite.

    WESTLAW: US GAO Federal Legislative Histories: Fed-LH: most laws enacted 1921-1995. Find desired law; then locate desired committee report.

    Congressional Record (see holdings and identification aids under Congressional Debates below). Conference reports are often printed here.

  2. Identification aids for Congressional committee reports:

    CIS Annual and other legislative history resources in Compiled Legislative Histories below.

    ProQuest Congressional: Committee Reports Indexing 1789- ; abstracts 1970- .

    Web [free]: U.S. Congressional Serial Set Inventory (U. N. TX), 15th Cong. - 91st Cong., 1817-1970. For each volume, 1 to 13219-3, lists brief contents and some holding libraries.

    Web [free]: Schedule of Volumes to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set 1970 to Current (LLSDC). For each volume, provides full list of contents.

C. Congressional Debates. A bill reported out of committee may be debated on the floor. Remarks may include statements, often made by the bill's sponsors, intended to explain the intent of the bill. Congressional debates are published in the daily Congressional Record.

  1. Sources for text of the Congressional Record and its predecessors:

    Congressional Record (Daily Edition). KF35.A5. LAW LIBRARY current year plus one year; J11.R5 Mullins GOVREF 1990- . Biweekly indexes have a History of Bills and Resolutions section. NOTE: At Law Library biweekly indexes are interfiled with daily issues; at Mullins all biweekly (indexes 1990- ) are filed together ahead of other issues.

    Congressional Record (Permanent Edition). KF35.A5 LAW COMPACT 1959-1974; J11.R5 Mullins GOVREF 1873-1977. Annual indexes have a History of Bills and Resolutions section.

    Congressional Record on fiche/film. LAW MICROFORMS microfiche 1975- . Mullins PER microfilm 1873-1976. Mullins USDOC M-FICHE microfiche 1977-2000. Law Library microfiche includes annual indexes for 1975-1996.

    Web [free]: Thomas 1989- (and Index 1995- ); FDsys Daily 1994- (and Index 1983- and History of Bills and Resolutions Index 1983- ); FDsys Bound/Permanent Edition 1998-2002; Library of Congress, 1873-1875.

    ProQuest Congressional: 1985- .

    LEXIS: Congressional Record (RECORD), 1985- .

    WESTLAW: CR, 1985- .

    HeinOnline: Congressional Record Bound Permanent Edition, 1873-2007; Congressional Record Daily, 1994- .

    Congressional Globe. KF35.G5 LAW LIBRARY and J11.G5 Mullins GOVREF. 1833-1873.
    Web [free]: Congressional Globe (Library of Congress), 1833-1873.
    HeinOnline: Congressional Globe, 1833-1873.

    Register of Debates. KF35.D4 LAW LIBRARY and J11.D5 Mullins GOVREF. 1824-1837.
    Web [free]: Register of Debates (Library of Congress), 1824-1837.
    HeinOnline: Register of Debates, 1824-1837.

    Annals of Congress. KF35.A5 LAW LIBRARY 1789-1824 with gaps; J11.A5 Mullins GOVREF 1789-1824.
    Web [free]: Annals of Congress (Library of Congress), 1789-1824.
    HeinOnline: Annals of Congress, 1789-1824.

    Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856. KF49.A27. LAW COMPACT.
    Web [free]: Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 (Making of America Books, U. Mich.).
    HeinOnline: Abridgement of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856.

  2. Identification aids for dates of debate pertaining to bills and laws:

    The legislative history resources in IV. Compiled Legislative Histories below.

    The History of Bills and Resolutions sections of the Congressional Record indexes listed above. These give page numbers for actions in the Congressional Record.

D. Congressional Committee Hearings. Views of non-members that provide committee members with information to be used in considering a bill. Relevant hearings may even occur in the session(s) before the bill is enacted.

  1. Sources for the text of congressional hearings:

    Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and House Agriculture Committee Hearings (GPO). Y4.AG... LAW-AG LAW COLLECTION. Selected 1979-1981; all 1989- .

    U.S. House and Senate committee hearings [all committees], CIS microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1970- .

    U.S. House and Senate committee hearings. Mullins US DOCS 1940ish- .

    Web [free]: Thomas, selected hearings, 1997- (select desired House or Senate committee) ; FDsys, selected House & Senate hearings, 1985-1988, 1995- .

    Web [free]: Congressional Documents Online (Rutgers-Camden Law Library), selected hearings 1970s-1998.

    Web [free]: Google Book Search. Although this resource has many digitized hearings from the late 1800s to the 2000s, full text is available for few. NOTE: Click on Full View Books in Advance Search.

    ProQuest Congressional, selected full text 1988- ; selected digitized 2004- ; abstracts 1970- .

    LEXIS: CQ Congressional Testimony (CNGTST), July 28, 1993- ; CQ Transcriptions-Hearings (POLHRG) 1995- ; National Narrowcast Network Transcripts (NNNTRN), Oct. 1993-July 28, 2000.

    WESTLAW: USTESTIMONY, selected Jan. 1993-1995; all Jan. 1996- ; CONGTMY, Nov. 2004- .

    WESTLAW: US GAO Federal Legislative Histories: Fed-LH: most laws enacted 1921-1995. Find desired law; then locate desired hearings.

    Web [free]: C-Span: CapitalHearings.org. Listen to live Senate and House hearings.

    Web [free]: C-Span: Hearings Archives. Listen to hearings 2003- .

  2. Identification aids for hearings:

    The legislative history resources in IV. Compiled Legislative Histories, especially CIS Annual and ProQuest Congressional.

    ProQuest Congressional: Indexing and abstracts, 1970- ; Published Hearings Indexing, 1833-1972; Unpublished Hearings, House, Indexing, 1833-1972; Unpublished Hearings, Senate, Indexing, 1824-1924.

    Cumulative Index of Congressional Committee Hearings (Not Confidential in Character) Together with Selected Committee Prints. Supplement. Z1223.A 1959. Mullins GOVREF 1935-1980.

    Index of Congressional Committee Hearings (Not Confidential in Character) prior to January 3, 1935, in the United States Senate Library. Z1223.A 1935. Mullins GOVREF.

E. Other Documents Relevant to Determining the Intent of a Law. Examples are Congressional committee studies, Presidential messages, committee hearings on related bills, and reports and documents of other federal agencies.

  1. Congressional committee prints. Committee prints are materials such as studies prepared on a topic for a committee.

    Sources for text of committee prints:

      CIS microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1970- .

      CIS Limited Edition microfiche from 1971-1990. Mullins GOVREF-MFICHE. Includes committee and subcommittee prints, Senate executive reports, Senate executive documents, and House and Senate special publications.

      LEXIS: Committee Prints (CMTPRN), selected Aug. 1994-Dec. 2003.

      Web [free]: FDsys, selected 1991- .

      Web [free]: Congressional Documents Online (Rutgers-Camden Law Library), selected prints 1970s-1998.

      ProQuest Congressional: selected 1993-2004; selected digitized 2004- ; abstracts 1970- .

      Other: Some prints are found in the numbered House and Senate documents in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set; others are found with hearings.

    Identification aids for committee prints:

  2. House and Senate documents. These include Presidential messages and executive agency memoranda and reports which accompany proposed legislation.

    Sources for the text of House and Senate documents:

      U.S. Congressional Serial Set

      U.S. Congressional Serial Set, Government Printing Office (GPO) microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1979- .
      U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Mullins US DOC-COMPACT 1817-1969; scattered 1970-1980.
      Web [free]: FDsys, 1986-1990, 1993- ; Library of Congress, selected 1833-1917.
      Readex U.S. Congressional Serial Set Online, 1817-1980.

      American State Papers

      American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States ... J33 .A48. Mullins SPEC COLL-OV 1789-1939.
      Web [free]: American State Papers (Library of Congress), 1789-1838.
      HeinOnline: American State Papers, 1789-1838.
      Readex American State Papers Online, 1789-1838.

      ProQuest Congressional/CIS

      CIS Microfiche. LAW MICROFORMS 1985- .
      ProQuest Congressional: 1995- ; digitized 1980- ; abstracts, 1970- .

      LEXIS: House and Senate Docs (HSDOCS), 1995- .

    Identification aids for House and Senate documents:

  3. Presidential signing statements. These are Presidential messages issued when the President signs or vetoes a bill. They contain the rationale for the President's action.

    Sources for the text of Presidential signing messages:

      United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.). KF48.U5. LAW LIBRARY 1948- . Full text of Presidential signing statements, 1985- .

      WESTLAW: U.S.C.C.A.N. (LH), 1985- . Also on WESTLAW: USCCAN-MSG provides a template for locating Presidential signing statements (1986- ).

      Weekly Compilation of Presidental Documents. KF70.A47. LAW LIBRARY 1965-1976, 1979-Oct. 30, 2000.
      Weekly/Daily Compilation of Public Documents (daily since 2009)
      Web [free]: FDsys, 1993- .
      Web [free]: Signing Statements (coherentbabble.com) , 2001- . NOTE: "When documents such as presidential speeches, remarks, Executive Orders, or Statements of Administration Policy help elucidate a signing statement, those documents are presented on this website in the annotations to the signing statements."
      WESTLAW: WCPD, 2000- .
      HeinOnline: U.S. Presidential Library, 1965- .

      Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. J80.A283. LAW LIBRARY 1990- ; Mullins MAIN 1929-1932/1933,1945- .
      Web [free]: Public Papers of the Presidents FDsys, 1991-2005, 2009 ; National Archives, 1981-2000.
      LEXIS: Public Papers of the Presidents (PRESDC), March 24, 1979- .
      HeinOnline: U.S. Presidential Library, 1931-2005, 2009. Also, other compilations covering 1789- .

    Identification aids for Presidential signing statements:

IV. Compiled Legislative Histories

A. CIS Annual/ProQuest Congressional

CIS Annual. KF49.C62. LAW MICROFORMS and Mullins GOVREF 1970- . This is the most comprehensive legislative history source as it lists legislative history components not only for the statute in question but also for related legislation. For each law, it lists bill versions; related bills; Congressional reports, documents, hearings, and prints of bill and related bills; related reports, hearings, etc. from previous Congresses; dates of debate in Congressional Record; messages from the President (as House and Senate documents); Presidential signing messages. CIS microfiche numbers of hearings, reports, documents are provided. It also has four-year cumulative indexes.

ProQuest Congressional: 1970- . Same as CIS Annual above. Also provides hypertext links to full text of reports (1990- ; digitized 1980- ), hearings (selected 1988- ; selected digitized 2004- ), documents (1995- ; digitized 1980- ), prints (1993-2004; selected digitized 2004- ), Congressional Record (1985- ), public laws (1988- ), bill text (1989- ), list of floor actions.

B. Web [free]: Thomas (Library of Congress), 1973- . From the Library of Congress, this is an excellent source for legislative history information for bills from 1973 forward, whether or not they were enacted into law. For each bill, Thomas lists legislative activity including floor actions, Congressional reports, Congressional Record citations. Provides full text of all bill versions 1989- . Provides links to full text of Congressional committee reports, 1995- and Congressional Record debate, 1993- .

C. Statutes at Large and the slip laws (pamphlet format) that cumulate into it. For laws enacted from 1975 forward, a brief legislative history is found at the end of each statute. Information includes Congressional committee reports, Congressional Record volume and dates of actions, Weekly/Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents citations, and cites to line-item veto messages. For 1963-1974, this information is in a separate table at the end of each volume. See IV. A. United States Statutes at Large for paper and electronic versions.

D. WESTLAW: Fed-LH: US GAO Federal Legislative Histories. These federal legislative histories for most laws enacted 1921-1995 were compiled by the U.S. GAO (Government Accountability Office). For each act, full-text documents include the public law, bills, Congressional committee reports, conference reports, hearings, and other documents. Topical subsets are available in these files: US GAO Federal Legislative Histories - Environmental Law (FED-LH-ENV), Finance and Banking (FED-LH-FIN), Health (FED-LH-HEALTH), Labor and Employment (FED-LH-EMP), Securities (FED-LH-SEC), Tax (FED-LH-TAX), and Veterans Law (FED-LH-VET).

E. United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.)

United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.). KF49.C6. LAW LIBRARY 1948- . For each public law, lists committee reports, dates of consideration and passage, and the Congressional Record volume that the researcher should check for those days. Only selected Congressional committee reports are reprinted here. Since 1985, U.S.C.C.A.N. has usually reprinted statements made by the President upon signing a bill. One can also find a brief legislative history at the end of public laws reprinted in U.S.C.C.A.N. As in Statutes at Large (above), these brief legislative histories list Congressional committee reports, Congressional Record volume and dates of actions, Weekly/Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents citations, and cites to line-item veto messages.

WESTLAW: U.S.C.C.A.N. legislative histories are in the LH file. LH provides the legislative history of public laws as reprinted in U.S.C.C.A.N. (above) from 1948 through 1989. The legislative history information listed is the same as for U.S.C.C.A.N. above. Although this information is not included for 1990- , this database provides links to legislation from 1973- with legislative history at the end of each statute as described in C. Statutes at Large above. LH also contains the legislative history of securities laws beginning with 1933. Full text documents available in the LH file are selected committee reports for laws 1948-1989, all committee reports for all bills and laws 1990- , and Presidential signing messages 1985- . In addition, the file USCCAN-REP provides a template to search for the legislative histories and the full-text of Congressional reports by public law number, bill number, popular name, report number, and U.S.C.C.A.N. cite.

F. History of Bills and Resolutions in the Congressional Record Index. For each bill or law, lists bill number, public law number, sponsors, co-sponsors, major actions, Congressional reports. Lists Congressional Record dates and page numbers for co-sponsors added, floor actions, reports, text, etc.

For local print and microform holdings of History of Bills and Resolutions section of the Congressional Record index, see Congressional Debates above.

Web [free]: FDsys: History of Bills (from Congressional Record), 1983- .

G. HeinOnline: U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection in its U.S. Federal Legislative History Library. Consists of legislative histories for significant federal legislation with links to full text of statutes, bills, and Congressional committee reports, hearings, and prints, and other documents. Browse by publication title, public law number, or popular name.

H. Web: [free]: Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format (Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.). Access by public law number or by popular name. Some legislative histories are passworded. A new section, Commercial Legislative Histories on the Internet, links to legislative histories on Westlaw, Lexis, and HeinOnline.

I. Bibliographies of Legislative Histories

Nancy P. Johnson, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books, 1st Congress- . KF42.2 1979. LAW-REFERENCE. Gives citations for books and articles about public laws. You will then need to look in our INFOLINKS online catalog to determine whether we have the book cited or the source (journal, book, loose-leaf service, microfiche set) which contains the article. Much of this is available through the HeinOnline U.S. Federal Legislative History Library in its Sources of Compiled Legislative History Database with links to text of the law in Statutes at Large and any law journal articles available on HeinOnline.

Bernard D. Reams, Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources (1994). KF42.2 1994. LAW-REFERENCE. These legislative histories cover selected statutes, 1862-1990. A description of the published source is provided along with the bibliographic information. For the public law, a public law number, bill number, Statutes at Large citation, and title are listed. One should then search INFOLINKS for the published source. CIS microfiche numbers are included.

J. Additional Resources

CCH Congressional Index, KF49.C6. LAW COMPACT. Lists legislative history including floor actions, committee reports, and committee hearings for 1979/1980-1999/2000.

Web: [free]: Digital Legislative Histories of Commerce Laws (U.S. Dept of Commerce). Each links to digitized full-text public law, reports, documents, Congressional Record, hearings, prints, and bills.

WESTLAW has legislative histories prepared by Arnold and Porter for selected major laws. WESTLAW also has separate USCCAN files for legislative histories of federal immigration (FIM-LH), security (FSEC-LH), and taxation (FTX-LH) laws. These files and other legislative history information can also be accessed through Westlaw.com

LEXIS has legislative histories for major environmental statutes, appropriations legislation for 1992- , and bankruptcy legislation 1978-1987 (BKRLH). It also has tax legislative histories (TAXLH, ESTLH), with selected public laws, bills, and committee reports on taxation from 1954 forward.

Search Infolinks for legislative histories of individual laws in the Young Law Library and Mullins. Search WorldCat for legislative histories which might be borrowed through interlibrary loan from other libraries.

American Landmark Legislation: Primary Materials. KF68.S5 1976 Mullins MAIN. Legislative history for each landmark statute includes a legislative history essay and the full text of the statutes, a Congressional report, Congressional debates, one or more cases which interpreted the law, and sometimes a pertinent article.

American Landmark Legislation: Second Series. KF68.S5 1976. Mullins MAIN. Same as the first except that a detailed chronology replaces the legislative history essay. The laws in this series are landmark labor laws.

Legislative Histories (Charlene Bangs Bickford and Helen E. Veit, eds.). KF350.D63 1972. Volumes 4-6 of Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789-March 3, 1791. LAW LIBRARY v. 4,6; Mullins MAIN v. 4-6. Legislative histories with full-text documents for 1789-1791.

Legislative histories from the Law Library Microform Consortium. Ask a reference librarian for assistance.

V. Public Laws

A. United States Statutes at Large and the slip laws (pamphlet format) that cumulate into it. Statutes at Large is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. The laws are in order of the date enacted into law and public law number.

United States Statutes at Large and the slip laws which cumulate into it. KF50. LAW LIBRARY 1789- and Mullins GOVREF 1937- .

Web [free]: Public Laws (slip laws) (FDsys), 1995- ; Statutes at Large (FDsys), 2003-2007; Statutes at Large (FDsys), 1951-2002; Statutes at Large (Library of Congress), 1789-1875.

WESTLAW: US-STATLRG U.S. Statutes at Large, 1789-1972.

ProQuest Congressional: Statutes at Large 1789- . NOTE: Click on Legislative Histories, Bills, and Laws. Then select Statutes at Large.

LEXIS: Statutes at Large 1789- . NOTE: This is not a searchable file; you must have a citation (108 pl 30, 117 stat 774) and access through Get a Document. It seems to be available through some point in previous session of Congress.

HeinOnline: U.S. Statutes at Large, 1789- .

B. Searching by Popular Name for a Public Law Number

If the popular name of a law is known, the researcher can identify public law numbers, Statutes at Large citations, and often United States Code sections from the following resources:

Shepards Acts and Cases by Popular Names: Federal and State. KF90.S92. LAW REFERENCE; Mullins GOVREF.

Popular Name Table for Acts of Congress in the United States Code.

Print versions include:
United States Code (USC) KF62 LAW LIBRARY and Y1.2/5 Mullins US DOC.
United States Code Annotated (USCA) KF62.5.W45 LAW LIBRARY.
United States Code Service (USCS) KF62 1972.L38 LAW LIBRARY.

Electronic versions include:
WESTLAW: USCA Popular Name Table (USCA-POP). NOTE: For Table of Contents, click on link in upper right corner.
LEXIS: USCS-Popular Name Table (USNAME).
Web [free]: USC Table of Acts by Popular Name at U.S. House.
Web [free]: Table of Popular Names at Cornell.

Web [free]: Browse Alphabetical List of Bill Popular and Short Titles (Thomas), 1973- .

WESTLAW: USCCAN-REP has a form to search for legislation and Congressional Committee reports by several keys, including popular name.

VI. Additional Information

A. Legislative History

Cohen, Bering, & Olson, Chapter 7: Legislative History, in How to Find the Law (9th ed. 1989). KF240.C538 1989. LAW LIBRARY.

T.J. Halstead, Presidential Signing Statements: Constitutional and Institutional Implications (Congressional Research Service, September 17, 2007) [free].

Koneski-White, Chapter Ten: Federal Legislative Histories, in Mersky and Dunn, Fundamentals of Legal Research 181 (8th ed. 2002). KF240.J32 2002. LAW LIBRARY.

LLSDC's Legislative Sourcebook (Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.) [free].

Virginia Saunders, U.S. Congressional Serial Set: What It Is and Its History (GPO Access) [free].

B. The Federal Law-Making Process

John V. Sullivan, House Parliamentarian. How Our Laws Are Made (Revised and updated 2007, Thomas, Library of Congress) [free].

Robert B. Dove, Senate Parliamentarian. Enactment of a Law (updated 1997, Thomas, Library of Congress) [free].

How a Bill Becomes a Law (ProQuest Congressional) [subscription].

VII. Web Bibliography

Congressional Documents Online, Rutgers-Camden Law Library, http://lawlibrary.rutgers.edu/gdoc/search.shtml [free].

FDsys: Federal Digital System, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ [free].

Google Book Search, http://books.google.com [free].

GPO Access (U.S. Government Printing Office), http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html [free].

HeinOnline, http://www.heinonline.org [subscription].

Infolinks, University of Arkansas Library Catalog, http://library.uark.edu [free].

Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format, Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., http://www.llsdc.org/leg-hist/ [free].

Schedule of Volumes to the U.S. Congressional Serial Set 1970 to Current, Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., http://www.llsdc.org/sch-v/ [free].

ProQuest Congressional, http://web.lexisnexis.com/congcomp [subscription].

LexisNexis for Law Schools, http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/ [subscription].

LexisNexis, http://www.lexisnexis.com [subscription].

Library of Congress: A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html [free].

Making of America Collection, University of Michigan, http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moa/ [free].

National Archives: Public Papers of the Presidents, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/publications/presidential-papers.html [free].

Thomas (Library of Congress), http://thomas.loc.gov [free].

Readex: U.S. Congressional Serial Set Online, http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=SERIAL, http://libinfo.uark.edu/eresources/help.asp?TitleCode=READEXSERIALSET [subscription].

Readex: American State Papers Online. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/?db=ASPA, http://libinfo.uark.edu/eresources/help.asp?TitleCode=READEXASPA [subscription].

U.S. Congressional Serial Set Inventory, University of North Texas http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/ssi/ [free].

WESTLAW, http://www.westlaw.com [subscription].

WESTLAW for Law Schools, http://lawschool.westlaw.com [subscription].

WorldCat, http://firstsearch.oclc.org/, http://libinfo.uark.edu/eresources/help.asp?TitleCode=FSWORLD [subscription].
WorldCat, http://www.worldcat.org/ [free].

Location Guide

Law Library
      LAW LIBRARY   General stacks
      LAW COMPACT   Compact shelving, 1st floor
      LAW MICROFORMS  Microform area, 1st floor
      LAW-REFERENCE  Reference area, 2nd floor
Mullins Library
      MAIN   General stacks
      GOVREF  Gov. Docs. reference area, 4th floor east
      GOVREF M-FICHE  Gov. docs microfiche area, 4th floor east
      PER  Periodical Room, 2nd floor
      US DOCS  Government Documents Dept., 4th floor east
      US DOCS-COMPACT  Ask at Gov. Docs. Reference Desk, 4th floor east
      US DOCS M-FICHE  Gov. Docs. microfiche, 4th floor east