Legislative History Research: A Guide To Resources For .
Legislative History Research: A Guide toResources for Congressional StaffJulia TaylorSection Head - ALD SectionAugust 16, 2013Congressional Research Service7-5700www.crs.govR41865CRS Report for CongressPrepared for Members and Committees of Congress
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional StaffSummaryThis report provides an overview of federal legislative history research, the legislative process,and where to find congressional documents. The report also summarizes some of the reasonsresearchers are interested in legislative history, briefly describes the actions a piece of legislationmight undergo during the legislative process, and provides a list of easily accessible print andelectronic resources. This report will be updated as needed.Congressional Research Service
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional StaffContentsIntroduction. 1The Legislative Process . 1Legislative History Resource Material . 2Compiled Histories . 2Legislation . 3Texts of Legislation . 4Bill History and Status . 4Committee Action. 5Floor Action . 8The Congressional Record . 9Roll Call Votes. 10Conference Committee Action . 11Conference Committee Reports . 11Presidential Action. 11Presidential Signing Statements . 12Public Laws . 12ContactsAuthor Contact Information. 13Acknowledgments . 13Congressional Research Service
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional StaffIntroductionBlack’s Law Dictionary defines legislative history as “the background and events leading to theenactment of a statute, including hearings, committee reports, and floor debates.” 1It also describes one of the primary reasons legal, policy, and legislative researchers investigatethe legislative history of a particular piece of legislation: “Legislative history is sometimesrecorded so that it can later be used to aid in interpreting the statute.”2However, the purpose of legislative history research is not limited to statutory interpretation.Questions researchers may want to answer through legislative history include Which committees and Members were involved? How was the legislative language amended as it advanced through thecongressional process? How did Members vote on proposed amendments and final passage?To answer these and similar questions, researchers must identify the chronological steps thelegislation followed through Congress and the materials that document what happened duringeach of these steps. This report briefly describes the actions a piece of legislation might undergoduring the legislative process and provides information on resources for retrieving legislativehistory materials.The Legislative ProcessThis report focuses on legislative history research, and therefore does not contain detailedinformation about the legislative process. However, because a general understanding of thelegislative process is helpful when compiling a legislative history, overviews of certaincongressional actions are provided. Detailed guides on the legislative process for the House andSenate are available online: How Our Laws Are Made, Revised and Updated, by John V. SullivanParliamentarian, United States House of RepresentativesPresented by Mr. Brady of PennsylvaniaJuly 24, 2007http://thomas.loc.gov/home/lawsmade.toc.html Enactment of a Law by Robert B. DoveParliamentarian, United States SenateUpdated: February oc.html1Black’s Law Dictionary, 9th Ed.Ibid. For further analysis of the use of legislative history for the interpretation of statutes, see CRS Report 97-589,Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends, by Larry M. Eig.2Congressional Research Service1
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional StaffIn addition, there are a number of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on variousaspects of the legislative process referenced throughout this report and available on CRS’swebsite at http://www.crs.gov.Legislative History Resource MaterialThe legislative history resource materials discussed below vary in scope and availability. Forexample, the Government Printing Office’s (GPO’s) Federal Digital System (FDsys), through itswebsite http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/search/home.action, is an online collection of officialcongressional publications and databases containing texts of legislation, the CongressionalRecord, House and Senate calendars, committee prints, committee hearings, committee reports,and other material useful for legislative research. However, the information available on thesewebsites is limited to more recent Congresses. By contrast, print publications may be morehistorically complete, but limited to only one type of document or information. For example, theCongressional Record and its predecessor publications, which are available in print going back to1789, contain information on procedural actions for legislation and transcripts of the proceedingson the House and Senate floor, but do not contain the text of committee hearings.The references cited below are available online through government sources or in hard copythrough CRS or the Law Library of Congress. They are also commonly available at locallibraries, law libraries, or federal depository libraries. GPO has a website to assist patrons infinding the nearest depository library, at http://catalog.gpo.gov/fdlpdir/FDLPdir.jsp. References tocommercial services that require subscriptions are limited to those available in all congressionaloffices.3In addition, some stages of the legislative process are more fully documented than others. Forexample, bills are often debated and amended extensively during their consideration bycongressional subcommittees, but these deliberations are not usually transcribed and made widelyavailable. In general, information on subcommittee action is limited to discussion in newsaccounts or reports from the full committee.Compiled HistoriesIn some instances, a legislative history may have already been compiled. There are a fewgovernment and commercial sources for compiled legislative histories.Online SourcesProquest Legislative tiveinsight/LegHistMain.jspThis commercial service offers compiled legislative histories that typically include bill text,Congressional Record references, committee documents, and miscellaneous publications for3Some subscription services with legislative information may be available through the Congressional ResearchService’s congressional research centers. For more contact information and hours, see the “Contact Us” page on theCRS.gov website, essional Research Service2
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staffpublic laws enacted starting with the 57th Congress (1901-1903). Users can search by publiclaw number, Statutes at Large citation, or enacted bill number.Proquest oquest Congressional, a commercial database, has legislative histories from 1969 to thepresent. Researchers can find legislative history compilations by keywords in the abstract, billtracking, bill text, floor votes, public laws, United States Code or Statutes at Large. Resultscan be restricted by words in the title of the legislative history or the Congress.Print SourcesGovernment Accountability Office (GAO) Legislative History Microfiche. This resourcecontains the legislative history for most public laws from 1921 to 1980. Reprints from themicrofiche may be available from CRS, the Law Library of Congress, or at a federaldepository library.Committee Prints. On occasion, committees produce legislative histories of enactmentswithin their jurisdiction. Reprints of published copies of committee prints may be availablethrough CRS, the Library of Congress, or at a federal depository library.LegislationBills. Most legislation introduced by a Member of Congress (i.e., the legislation’s sponsor) isintroduced as a “bill,” the general form used for legislation that will have the force of law ifenacted.4 Bills are numbered sequentially in the order they were introduced. Bills introduced inthe Senate are preceded by “S.”; those in the House by “H.R.” Bills remain pending from the timeof introduction until final passage or the final adjournment of a Congress (i.e., the numbered twoyear convocation of the House and Senate that begins January 3 following each biennial federalelection). Bills not enacted during a Congress “die”; further legislative consideration requires thatthey be reintroduced in the next Congress.Joint Resolutions. While bills are used for purposes of general legislation, joint resolutions(S.J. Res. or H.J. Res.) are used to propose constitutional amendments and for a variety of specialor subordinate purposes, such as continuing appropriations.5 Except for those proposingconstitutional amendments, joint resolutions become law in the same manner as bills.If a legislative measure receives action, GPO publishes versions of the legislative text as it movesthrough the various stages of the legislative process. These versions include those markedreported, engrossed, engrossed House/Senate amendment,6 public print, and enrolled. By4A bill is enacted only if both houses of Congress pass identical versions of it and either the President signs the passedversion or, if the President vetoes the bill, two-third majorities of both houses pass the bill again thereby overriding theveto. For more information on vetoes, see CRS Report RS22188, Regular Vetoes and Pocket Vetoes: An Overview, byKevin R. Kosar.5Simple and concurrent resolutions do not have the force of law and therefore were omitted from this discussion. Foradditional information on all types of bills and resolutions, see CRS Report 98-706, Bills and Resolutions: Examples ofHow Each Kind Is Used, by Richard S. Beth.6For additional information, see CRS Report 98-812, Amendments Between the Houses: A Brief Overview, by(continued.)Congressional Research Service3
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staffcomparing different bill or resolution texts, researchers can determine at what stage in thelegislative process revisions were made.Texts of LegislationOnline SourcesGovernment Printing Office action?collectionCode BILLSFDsys enables users to browse or search for bills and resolutions from the 103rd Congress(1993-1994) forward.Legislative Information System (LIS) vLIS is available to congressional researchers. Users can browse or search for bill andresolution texts starting with the 101st Congress (1989-1990). THOMAS is available to thegeneral public and covers the same time period for legislative text.American Memory’s A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: Bills and Resolutionshttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/The American Memory website contains scanned images of some historical bills andresolutions. Coverage for the House starts with the 6th Congress (1799-1800) through the42nd Congress (1871-1872). For the Senate, coverage is from the 16th Congress (1819-1821)through the 42nd Congress (1871-1872).Print SourcesPrint versions of bills are available on microfiche or microfilm through the Law Library ofCongress (1789-current) and certain federal depository libraries.Bill History and StatusAt its most fundamental, legislative history tracks congressional action on a piece of legislationand its status within the legislative process.8 When beginning a legislative history research(.continued)Elizabeth Rybicki and James V. Saturno.7The Legislative Information System (LIS) is a product of the Congressional Research Service and is only available onlegislative branch computers. The public equivalent of LIS is THOMAS. A new public beta website, which willeventually replace both LIS and THOMAS, was released by the Library of Congress in fall 2012,http://beta.congress.gov/.8For more information on tracking current legislation, see CRS Report RL33895, Researching Current FederalLegislation and Regulations: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staff, by Jerry W. Mansfield.Congressional Research Service4
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staffproject, one of the first steps a researcher may want to undertake is locating information on thehistory of the bill and citations to documents. Through the years, various government and privateentities have tracked the history and status of bills.Online as.loc.govLIS is available to congressional offices and provides bill summary and status information onbills and resolutions starting from the 93rd Congress (1973-1974) to the present. THOMAS, apublic legislative service from the Library of Congress, contains the same information on abill’s history and status.Congressional n.action?collectionCode CCALHouse and Senate calendars are published periodically during the session by the Clerk of theHouse and the Secretary of the Senate. The calendars provide a list of legislation. In theHouse calendar, the history and current status of legislation receiving action is summarized.9FDsys contains final House and Senate calendars starting from the 104th Congress (19951996) to the present.Print SourcesDigest of Public General Bills and Resolutions. The Bill Digest, a publication of the Libraryof Congress from 1936 until 1990, contains summaries and status of legislation.House and Senate Calendars. Published copies of the calendars are available through CRS,the Law Library of Congress, or at a federal depository library.Congressional Information Service (CIS). A commercial service, the CIS Index lists eachpublic law in the Annual Abstracts volume and references publications concerning the law.These references include a list of congressional hearings, reports, documents, and prints backto 1970. The Legislative Histories volume contains the legislative history information onselected public laws, including dates of congressional debate, back to 1970. The CISHistorical Index contains congressional documents from 1789 through 1972.Committee ActionLegislation is usually referred to a committee after introduction, according to its subject matter.Often, a committee will further refer the legislation to one of its subcommittees. The9See CRS Report 98-437, Calendars of the House of Representatives, by Christopher M. Davis; CRS Report 98-429,The Senate’s Calendar of Business, by Betsy Palmer; and CRS Report 98-438, The Senate’s Executive Calendar, byBetsy Palmer.Congressional Research Service5
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional Staffsubcommittees may request reports from government agencies or departments, hold hearings,mark up the bill (meet to propose changes), and report the legislation to the full committee. Thefull committee may take similar action, with or without prior subcommittee consideration, andreport the legislation to its full chamber (i.e., the House or Senate).Hearings. Hearings provide a committee or subcommittee the opportunity to explore topics orlegislation.10 Hearings may include statements of committee Members and interested parties, aswell as the testimony of witnesses. GPO publishes hearings made available to them bycommittees.Online SourcesGPO tion?collectionCode CHRGThrough FDsys, researchers can download selected committee hearings starting with the105th Congress (1985-1986).Proquest Congressional Hearings Digital est Congressional, a commercial database, has scanned PDF images of publishedcommittee hearings from 1824 to the present.Print SourcesPrint versions of committee hearings are available through CRS and the Law Library ofCongress. More recent hearings are available through the House and Senate DocumentRooms. Individual hearings may be available through a federal depository library.Reports. Most legislation never proceeds through full committee consideration and remains incommittee for the remainder of a Congress. However, committees may, by majority vote, reportsome bills and resolutions for consideration by the entire chamber. The House requires a writtenreport on the legislation, but the Senate does not. These committee reports can be particularlyuseful documents for legislative history research because they often describe the purpose of thelegislation and summarize or explain specific provisions. The report will also give details on thecommittee’s actions, understandings, and conclusions about the legislation. Changes to existinglaws, votes on amendments during markups, and subcommittee information are supplementalmaterial to the committee report that may also be useful for legislative history research.11 If thelegislation was considered by a subcommittee, that information may also be covered in the fullcommittee’s report. Committee reports are published by GPO. Sometimes, the reports arereproduced in whole or part by commercial publishers.10For additional information on hearings, see CRS Report 98-317, Types of Committee Hearings, by ValerieHeitshusen; CRS Report RL30548, Hearings in the U.S. Senate: A Guide for Preparation and Procedure, by BetsyPalmer; and CRS Report 98-488, House Committee Hearings: Preparation, by Christopher M. Davis.11For a description of other required content for committee reports, see CRS Report 98-169, House CommitteeReports: Required Contents, by Judy Schneider and CRS Report 98-305, Senate Committee Reports: RequiredContents, by Elizabeth Rybicki.Congressional Research Service6
Legislative History Research: A Guide to Resources for Congressional StaffCommittee reports are identified as House Report (H. Rept. or H. Rep.) or Senate Report (S
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