What is Legislative History?
A legislative history is a collection of the documents created by Congress or a state legislature during the process of enacting a law or rejecting a proposed law. Legislative history provides evidence that members of the legislative body were aware of particular facts and includes comments and recommendations of committees and individual members of the legislative body.
Legislative history is useful as a tool of statutory construction, when the wording of the statute is vague. Legislative history is persuasive authority. It is never binding upon a court.
Federal legislative history documents show congressional intent. The documents which can make up a legislative history include:
- Committee Reports
- Bills and Amendments
- Hearings
- Committee Prints
- Debates
- Presidential Messages
The first place to begin research is to see if a legislative history has been compiled all ready. If not, you might have to compile key documents listed above but since this can be a time-consuming process it is always best to look for a compiled legislative history first.
ACCESS
LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law - password required. BC Access for:
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
If you are looking for legislative history materially generally for a particular law start with the compiled legislative history tab. If you are looking for a particular document, e.g. a house report, use the sources of legislative history chart to see where the full-text document is located.
SELECTED LEGISLATIVE HISTORY RESOURCES
- LexisNexisAllows access to CIS Legislative Histories and selected compiled legislative histories for major legislation.
- WestlawHas a variety of resources including extensive U.S. GAO Legislative Histories and the Arnold & Porter Collection.
- GPO/FDsysThe GPO's Federal Digital System's (FDsys) has many sources available, such as hearings and reports, if you need to compile a recent legislative history.
- HeinOnlineCompiled legislative histories.
- Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. Inc.A list of compiled legislative histories freely available on the web.
- Proquest CongressionalProvides access to source documents and a legislative histories index from 1970 to present and full-text of some legislative history materials.
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980Database provides historic legislative reports and documents with ongoing file expansion.
- C-Span's Congressional ChronicleProvides streaming video broadcasts of House and Senate sessions, debates, and selected hearings, some as far back as 1987.
- Federal Legislative History Research GuideThe Law Library's Federal Legislative History research guide explains the process of finding or compiling a legislative history and lists resources for finding legislative documents.
- Thomas.govFind legislative history information by browsing by public law number.
Other Resources
BC Law Library Federal Legislative History Guide
Longer, more complete guide to finding legislative history materials (including print materials) in the Boston College Law Library collection.
Drake Law Library Legislative History Guide
Thank you to Karen Wallace who allowed us to use portions of the above mentioned guide when putting together this Federal Legislative History Materials guide.
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