Introduction
Let others do the work pulling together all of the documents that make up a legislative history of a federal statute. These resources may provide you indexed, complete compilations of those documents, may provide a listing of those documents with citations, or may point to other compilations or articles that pull together this information. All are excellent places to begin your legislative history research.
Compiled Legislative Histories
- ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new windowThe place to start when you have a public law citation and need all related full-text legislative history documents from the 1st Congress (1789) to the 116th Congress (2019), including bills, reports, hearings, documents and more. Also search for individual documents by number.
- U.S. Federal Legislative History Library This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
From HeinOnline. In addition to the inclusion of actual federal legislative histories published by the U.S. GPO and private publishers, this database also includes a unique finding aid based on Nancy Johnsons award-winning work, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories. Researchers should begin their U.S. federal legislative history research with this finding aid, which often includes references to law review articles on-point to a particular legislative history.
- Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories (Heinonline)Print and online sources for compiled legislative histories (and lists of citations) found in books, articles and government documents.
- Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format (LLSDC)Links to free and commercial compiled legislative histories for numerous federal laws.
- U.S. GAO Federal Legislative Histories (Westlaw)Comprehensive legislative histories for most U.S. Public Laws enacted from 1921 to 1995, as compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
- Arnold & Porter Legislative Histories (Westlaw)Selected compiled legislative histories from the Washington, D.C. law firm.
- Legislative History Library (LexisNexis)Selection of compiled legislative histories, as well as full access to the CIS/Index (legislative histories and abstracts from 1970) and CIS/Historical Index (records from 1789-1980)
Research Help
We're here to help. Contact a research librarian for help with an assignment, project, or resource.
Hours:
Mon-Fri, 11am-4pm
503-768-6688
lawlib@lclark.edu
Reference Hours
