Finding Legislative History
Use these sources to find the following information:
- The text of the bill.
- A record of votes.
- Committee hearings and prints.
- Reports.
- Debates on the floor.
- Amendments.
- Sponsors and co-sponsors.
- Related bills.
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Proquest Congressional This link opens in a new windowSee Congress in Context summaries link at top of database landing page. These contain a section "Major Acts". Alternatively, for enacted legislation, select only Legislative Histories from the facets on the left and search by keyword or act name, e.g., "cyber security," "border security,", "federal highways "patriot act", etc. . For current legislation, select only Bills & Laws, from the facets on the left, and search by keyword. Also make sure you limit by Congress-the current Congress is the 116th.
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Congress.govSearch for your bill. Use the "More Options" tab to set helpful limits to navigate to the exact bill you need. See the Public Laws link for lists by Congress and the Browse link at the top, to search by subject and Congress.
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govinfoThe new portal from the Government Printing Office is a massive collection of documents from every branch of government.
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The Sunlight FoundationTrack federal actions and policy analysis.
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GovTrack.usOn the left, enter your keyword(s), select a Congressional term,current status, subject, etc.
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Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the InternetLaw Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC) collection of links to compilations online.
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OneSearchTool that searches vast majority of resources available through the library.
