Histories of major legislation are available from sources including the following:

• Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories by Nancy Johnson (Fred B. Rothman and Co. now William S. Heinz and Co., 2000)
  
  
• Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources by Bernard Reams (1994, Greenwood Press)
  
  
• The United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (West Publishing Company)
  A two volume set for each Congress has been published since 1941. One volume includes the text of Public Laws and the focus of the other is brief legislative histories.
  
  
• Congressional Information Service Index/Abstracts
  The Index abstracts and indexes Congressional reports and hearings beginning in 1970. Legislative histories are arranged by Public Law number in separate volumes beginning with 1984.
  
  
• The Information Handling Service
  Offers histories of major legislation enacted between 1951 to 1970. These histories are available on microfiche and filed by Public Law number.
  
  
• Congressional Masterfile database
  This Congressional Information Service database includes legislative histories and indexed and abstracted committee publications and Public Laws from 1789 to 1969.
  
  
• Lexis-Nexis
  Includes commercially-prepared legislative histories on some Public Laws since 1988.

Web Guides


• McKinney, Richard J., Assistant Law Librarian, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent. Law Librarians Society of Washington DC, Inc., 2001
  
  
• Legislative Research in Congressional Offices: A Primer by Clay H. Wellborn, Specialist in American National Government and Sula P. Richardson, Analyst in American National Government Division, 1996.
  
  
• Federal Legislative Histories—Getting Started. Law Library Pathfinders Indiana University Law, Indianapolis.
  
  
• Federal Legislative History adapted from the Bridge the Gap program. Marion Gould Gallagher Law Library at the University of Washington School of Law, 1998.
  
  
• Federal Statutes and Legislative History. D'Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago.
  
  
• Garner, Nancy Head of Reference Services. Federal Legislative History Resources. 24 Pennsylvania Law Weekly 110, January 22, 2001.
  
  
• Guide to Tracing Legislative Histories. Prepared by the Staff of the Pentagon Library.
  
  
• Hastings Law Library, Legal Information Guidepost #1, Compiling a Legislative History: United States.
  
  
• Legislative History Research
  
  
• Legislative History: The Search for Legislative Intent or What Was Congress Thinking? Michigan State University Libraries.
  
  
• Research Guide Number 10, U.S. Legislative History. Washburn University School of Law Library.
  
  
• Researching Legislative History and Congressional Documents. Emory University Law Library.
  
  
• Tutorials—Legislative History. Georgetown University Law Center, E.B. Williams Library.
  
  
• University of Michigan Government Document Center.
  
  
• Wellborn Clay H. and Sula P. Richardson. A Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, Legislative Research in Congressional Offices: A Primer. 95-657 GOV.
  
  Other Sources of Information
  
  On-line documents are available to compile legislative histories for laws passed roughly since 1980. Library resources like the Congressional Record and Congressional Quarterly Almanac are available to track somewhat earlier legislation. The Annals of Congress (1789-1837) and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873) track legislation earlier than 1873.

Free on-line services:

• Thomas
  A site by the Library of Congress that indexes bills by subject, sponsor, committee, popular title, stage reached in the legislative process (since 1973) and full text (since 1993). Thomas also has a record of some of the floor debates since 1993.
  
  
• GPO Access
  A service provided by the Government Printing Office that has the full text of House and Senate Bills and Resolutions, Public Laws, the Congressional Record, Congressional Record Index and History of Bills and Resolutions from 1987 to the present as well as committee reports.
  
  
• Congressional Record Index
  Bills are indexed by number, author, and subject, with references to reports, hearings and voting records beginning in 1953.
  
  
• C-Span Congressional Glossary
  
  
• FedLaw
  
  
• US State Department, Information USA
  
  
• National Archives and Records Administration Guide to Finding U.S. Government Documents by Title/Name
  
  
• National Archives and Records Administration Center for Legislative Archives
  
  
• Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
  
  
• Legislative Information. Originally compiled by Carol Singer, DC Reference Center of the National Agricultural Library
  
  
• Quick Links to House and Senate Committee Documents and Hearings
  
  
• Annotated Constitution of the United States of America
  
  
• Law Librarians Society of Washington DC: Table of Congressional Publication Volumes and Presidential Issuances (1789-2001)
  
  
• CRS Report: The First Day of a New Congress, A Guide to Proceedings on the House Floor by Mildred Amer, Specialist in American National Government, Government Finance Division, 2000
  
  
• CRS Report: House and Senate Rules of Procedure: A Comparison by Mari E. Mulvihill Consultant in American National Government
  
  
• CRS Report: Bills and Resolutions: Examples of How Each Kind is Used by Richard S. Beth, Specialist in the Legislative Process, Government Division
  
  
• CRS Report: Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Basic Sources by Carol D. Davis, Information Research Specialist, 2000

Password-protected on-line services (consult your librarian):

• Congressional Information Service Congressional Universe
  The site indexes bills since 1969 by keyword, sponsor, and bill number and provides full text since 1988. It provides the full text of a bill and/or law as well as provides a rather thorough legislative history of most bills and laws. This service also provides selected texts of testimony available since 1988 and also offers congressional report indexes and abstracts beginning in 1970. This resource tool also indexes the Congressional Record by speaker, keyword and date since 1985 and provides the full text.
  
  
• Congressional Quarterly's Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
  Beginning with legislation passed in 1983, this site provides a weekly summary of what happened in Congress.
  
  
• Lexis-Nexis
  The site offers the text of hearings since 1993, congressional reports since 1990, bills passed since 1989, and debates since 1985.
  
  
• Westlaw
  The site includes bills and reports since 1995, hearings since 1993, debates since 1985, and cases, statutes, and other documents in West's library since 1975.