FINDING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

 

 

 

WHAT IS LEGISLATIVE HISTORY?

 

Documents produced by a legislature during the legislative process by which a bill

becomes a law.  These materials are used to determine legislative intent or to clarify statutory language, but they carry only persuasive legal authority.

 

 

 

HOW A BILL BECOMES LAW

 

  1. A bill or a joint resolution is introduced in the House or the Senate.

·        Introduced Bill

 

  1. The bill is referred to a committee and sometimes a subcommittee.

 

  1. The committee and/or the subcommittee hold hearings on the bill.

·        Transcript of Hearing

 

  1. The committee prepares a committee report and reports the bill to the full House or the Senate.

·        Reported Bill

·        Committee Report

 

  1. The bill is debated on the floor of the House or the Senate.

·        Transcript of Debate (Congressional Record)

 

  1. A vote is taken and the bill is passed or defeated.

·        Engrossed Bill, Certified Bill, or Act

 

  1. The same procedure is carried out in the other house.

 

  1. When both houses have passed related bills, the bills are referred to a conference committee where members agree to a compromised version.

·        Conference Report

·        Compromise Bill

 

  1. A compromise bill is sent to each house with a conference committee report. A vote is taken and the bill is passed or defeated.

 


  1. If the bill passes both houses, it is sent to the President.

·        Enrolled Bill

 

  1. The bill becomes law if the President signs the bill, takes no action within ten days (excluding Sundays) and Congress is in session, or vetoes the bill but is overridden by two-thirds vote of each house of Congress. If the President does not act and Congress adjourns before ten days pass, then the bill dies (pocket veto).

 

 

 

SUGGESTED APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

 

  • Check online

 

o       Thomas

o       GPO Access

o       Westlaw

o       LexisNexis

 

·        Check a General Index (for already compiled legislative histories)

 

o       Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories by Nancy P. Johnson

o       Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources by Bernard D. Reams, Jr.

o       Union List of Legislative Histories by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.

 

·        Check with your Organization (the issue may have come up before and someone may have compiled a legislative history)

 

·        Ask a Law Librarian (always a delightful option) (some law libraries compile legislative histories for major laws)

 

·        Ask the Assigning Attorney.  When your supervising attorney asks you for a legislative history of a particular Code section that has been amended several times, he or she may not want legislative histories of all the amendments. Instead, he or she may want only the legislative history of the bill(s) that inserted or affected the particular language that he or she needs to interpret.

 

·        Look at the U.S.C.C.A.N.  Sometimes that's all you need. U.S.C.C.A.N.

 

o       U.S.C.C.A.N. provides the full-text of all public laws enacted during a particular legislative term as well as selected legislative histories for those public laws (complete with full-text of relevant documents).  U.S.C.C.A.N. also includes very useful indexes and tables.  Give it a look!

 

·    Check CIS. CIS Sample

 

o       CIS Index is THE finding tool for legislative documents. It is available in print and online.

o       CIS indexes hearings, reports, committee prints, and other legislative documents while also compiling legislative histories, which are organized by Public Law No. and Congress.

o       A separate index exists for legislative documents of bills introduced before 1970.

o       The CIS Indexes are located across from the reference desk.

 

 

 

WHAT DOCUMENTS MAKE-UP LEGISLATIVE HISTORY?  (AND WHERE TO FIND THEM)  (In their order of importance)

 

·                                Committee Reports

 

o       U.S.C.C.A.N (U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News) prints selected reports from 1941 to date. (available in print and on Westlaw)

o       http://thomas.loc.gov (Thomas, 1995 to date)

o       http://www. gpoaccess.gov (GPO, 1995 to date)

o       Lexis (selected reports from 1989 to 1992, comprehensive reports from 1993 to date)

o       Westlaw (1948 to 1989 reports as published in the U.S.C.C.A.N., comprehensive reports from 1990 to date)

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, full text of reports from 1989 to date, click on "Publications")

o       For older committee reports, use the CIS Index in print (black books) or online on Lexis Congressional Universe to locate a CIS number. Then locate the report on microfiche by CIS number.  Older committee reports are also available in the Serial Set, so make sure to check the U.S. Serial Set Index too.

 

·                                Floor Debates

 

o       Congressional Record in print (1873 to date)

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, 1985 to date, click on "Publications," search by keyword, speaker, page citation, or date)

o       http://thomas.loc.gov (Congressional Record Text from 1989, Index from 1995)

o       http://www.gpoaccess.gov (Congressional Record Text from 1994, Index from 1983)

o       Lexis (from 1985)

o       Westlaw (from 1985)

 

·                                Committee Hearings

 

o       www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html (selected hearings from 1997)

o       Lexis (selected transcripts from 1988)

o       Westlaw (selected transcripts from 1993)

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, full text of selected transcripts from 1988 to 1993 and more comprehensive testimonies from 1993 to date)

o       CIS Index to microfiche of hearing transcripts (1970 to date) in print (black books) or online on Lexis Congressional Universe

o       CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index (1833-1969) (blue books) or search "Historical Indexes" on Lexis Congressional Universe Bill Text & Amended Bills

 

·                                Bills

 

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, 1989 to date, click on "Bills")

o       http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html (Thomas, 1989 to date)

o       http://www.gpoaccess.gov/bills/index.html (GPO, 1993 to date)

o       Lexis (1989 to date)

o       Westlaw (1995 to date)

o       Congressional Bills & Resolutions (available on microfiche, 1979 to date)

 

·                                Committee Prints

 

o       http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html (GPO, 1997 to date)

o       Lexis (1995 to date)

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, selected committee prints from 1993)

o       CIS Index to microfiche of committee prints (1970 to date) (black books) or online on Lexis Congressional Universe

o       US Congressional Committee Prints Index (through 1969) (green books) or search "Historical Indexes" on Lexis Congressional Universe

 

·                                House & Senate Documents

 

o       http://www.gpoaccess.gov (GPO, 1995 to date)

o       Lexis Congressional Universe (BU online access only, 1995 to date)

o       CIS Index to microfiche (1970 to date)

 

·                                Presidential Statements

 

o       Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1965 to date) in print

o       Public Papers of the President of the United States (1929 to date) in print

o       www.gpoaccess.gov (GPO, 1993 to date)

o       Lexis (March 24, 1979 to date)

o       Westlaw (Executive Orders from 1936 and all other documents from 1984)

 

 

 

 

MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATIVE HISTORY RESEARCH

 

  • See Chapter 3 of Handbook of Legal Research in Massachusetts by Mary Ann Neary et al.

 

 

 

 

EXERCISE PROBLEMS

 

1.         You are interested in finding out what committee reports are available for P.L. 105-34, Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. You only have access to the U.S.C.C.A.N.. Please write down the report numbers for the committee reports that are publicly available. Which two reports are printed in the U.S.C.C.A.N.? (Hint: look at the first page "table of contents" of the legislative history for this Public Law)

 

 

 

           U.S.C.C.A.N.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.         Find Senate Report 105-33 related to the bill in the Senate that was analogous to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 using the Thomas web site. Open the report in PDF. Write down the bill number for this report.

 

 

 

 

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3.         Find House Conference Report 105-220 related to the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 using Lexis Congressional Universe. Open section 1 (due to the size of this report, Lexis split the report into 9 sections). Write down the bill number for this report.

 

 

 

 

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