Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide, Part II

Part of LLSDC's Legislative Source Book

      In compiling legislative histories for older (pre 1970) U.S. public laws, the first priority is to find the public law number (or statute citation) and from it the bill number that was signed into law which you can use as a key to find the legislative actions on the bill. If you know the popular name of an Act you can generally find its public law number in the Popular Names Table of United States Code (U.S.C.) or in the Popular Name table of the commercially produced United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) or the United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.). The table or the index to the Code will also cite to the U.S. Code sections where each part of a law that is general and continuing was assigned by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives according to its subject matter. The parenthetical note following each U.S. Code section will tell you what public laws amended or established that section and further historical notes will briefly explain how each amendment changed that section.

      Be careful in using notes within U.S. Code titles that have been revised, codified and enacted into positive law, as any public law citations in notes to them will only go back as far the Act which established the new codification. Reviser notes to these sections will tell you which acts (and which older Code sections) the new section came from but not how each changed the section (see page 3 of United States Code: Historical Outline and Explanatory Notes). These so called recodified titles are not intended to change the law. The Office of the Law Revision Counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, which prepares U.S. Code revisions, will generally only reorganize and perhaps rephrase the law to make it more coherent and consistent. Thus in order to find the true statutory origin of a certain section of the Code for which a title has been officially codified (and the appropriate laws to research for legislative history purposes) you will need to check that section's revision notes to find the older Code section(s) and statutes from which it was derived (they sometimes reuse the older Code sections). You may then want to obtain a copy of an earlier Code before it was codified into positive law and review the text of the earlier code section as well as any historical notes explaining amendment changes over time. The titles of the U.S. Code that have been revised, codified and enacted into positive law include titles 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 46, and 49. Also, Title 26, although not enacted, exactly mirrors the Internal Revenue Code, which has been enacted.

      If you have the public law number (used officially since 1957 but applied uniquely to U.S. public laws since 1908), then from it you can access a variety of sources to find the bill number that was enacted and from it find the chronologies of actions taken on the bill. These include the biennial CCH Congressional Index which is a loose-leaf service published since 1941 with a chronological history on each bill (including, what few other indices note, the committee and beginning date that hearings were held on a bill). There is also the final House Calendar published for each Congress since the 1920's (officially called Calendars of the United States House of Representatives and History of Legislation: Final Edition), which shows a chronology on each bill having some action. Another reference tool is the Digest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, produced from 1955 to 1989 by the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service (CRS). This publication series includes summaries and floor action listings on each measure introduced from the 84th Congress to the 101st Congress. The Library of Congress Internet service, THOMAS, continues to make these CRS summaries and floor action listings available for each bill and resolution from 1973 to the present and from 1979 to the present the service includes detailed bill status chronologies (with committees and dates of hearings noted).

      A convenient source for legislative history references is in the notes of the United States Statutes At Large. Since 1975 the Statutes At Large gives brief legislative history references on the final page to each U.S. public law, including bill numbers, committee report numbers and dates of floor consideration or passage. The bill number or joint resolution that was enacted into law is also placed in the margin at the beginning of each law included in the Statutes At Large since 1904. Information on corresponding bill numbers for U.S. laws prior to 1904 (the 58th Congress) are laid out in a publication by Eugene Nabors entitled Legislative Reference Checklist: the Key to Legislative Histories from 1789 to 1903, Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1982 (no longer in print). The Statutes At Large is available in PDF on Lexis (STATLG file), Lexis.com, LexisNexis Congressional, and Potomac Publishing Company (CD-ROM or Internet).  Committee reports that accompany many bills may also have a section that shows how existing law would be changed by the committee's proposed legislation.

      However, probably the key tool for finding related legislative history documents to U.S. public laws before 1970 is the bound "Congressional Record Index", especially its accompanying "History of Bills and Resolutions". The index and history of House and Senate bills has been produced for each congressional session since the Congressional Record began in 1873. It is generally placed in the last (or second to last) part in the bound volume series of the Congressional Record that is published for each congressional session. Usually each congressional session covers one year, but before 1941 a biannual Congress frequently had more than two sessions and sessions did not normally begin in January. See Sessions of Congress with Corresponding Debate Record Volume Numbers.

      The "Congressional Record Index" and the "History of Bills and Resolutions" are available on GPO Access from 1983 (98th Congress) forward, but for the daily edition only, which has a completely different pagination from the bound edition. Since 1967, the daily edition of the Congressional Record has placed a letter in front of the page number signifying different sections -- S for Senate section, H for House section, E for Extension of Remarks section, and D for Daily Digest section. In contrast, the bound edition is in straight numeric pagination and integrates House and Senate pages together on a daily basis. Before 1968, the daily edition was also in straight numeric pagination but the page numbers do not correspond to the page numbers in the bound edition. Also before 1968 the Extension of Remarks section (usually only inserted by members of the House) was published as an appendix to the Record which in the past was not always included in the bound Congressional Record (see An Overview of the Congressional Record and Its Predecessor Publications). The daily edition of the Congressional Record is available electronically in full text on both Lexis and Westlaw from 1985 forward, but there is currently only limited electronic forms of the bound edition of the Congressional Record, which becomes the official citation reference when it comes out in print, usually a few years after the daily edition.  GPO Access has available the a digital bound edition of the 1999 and 2000 volumes with promises of more subsequent volumes while HeinOnline and LexisNexis both have ongoing projects to retrospectively digitize the bound Congressional Record.

      The "History of Bills and Resolutions" at the end of each index provides Congressional Record page numbers (but no the dates before 1993) for actions on a specific bill. Noted are page numbers for when a bill is introduced, reported from committee (with the report number) and considered on the House or Senate floors. It also notes the conference report number and the page numbers in the Record showing where the conference report was considered as well as page numbers noting when House and Senate officials signed the enrolled bill just before sending it to the President. Finally, it gives the page number noting when a bill was signed into law and the public law number. Frequently the page numbers noting House or Senate floor consideration only present the beginning page number but consideration could have continued for multiple pages. The "History of Bills and Resolutions" does not note committee hearings or companion measures in the other chamber or similar measures introduced in the same chamber. However, the "Congressional Record Index" of subjects and names will assist you in finding related measures and remarks not noted in the "History of Bills and Resolutions".

      The "Congressional Record Daily Digest" volume part placed at the end of each Congressional Record volume after 1947 summarizes daily floor action and notes committee actions and hearings for that day. The text of committee hearings and committee reports are not normally placed in the Congressional Record with the exception of conference reports and occasional excerpts of congressional testimony. The text of committee hearings and committee prints are published as separate paper bound copies (tan outside binding for large House hearings and green for Senate). Although committees may number their hearings and prints in a series, they are normally published in single paper bound copies. Some hearings may be only some 20 or 30 pages in length while others that were held over many days may be issued in a number of volumes or parts and each part may be several hundred pages in length.

      Unlike congressional hearings, most all numbered committee reports and House and Senate numbered documents are placed in the voluminous United States Congressional Serial Set, which has been published since 1817 and now has over 14,000 volumes. As committee reports and other documents are considered critical to most legislative histories, the U.S. Serial Set is of immeasurable value in legislative research. If you are able to obtain a committee report number you can take that number and look it up in an index to find out which volume of the U.S. Serial Set contains the specific report or document you need. Indices to the U.S. Serial Set include the CIS U.S. Serial Set Index (1789-1969) which now has a very useful bill number index arranged by Congress. Also there is the Numerical Lists and Schedule of Volumes published by GPO for the years 1933-1980 (73rd - 96th Congresses) and republished in three volumes by William S. Hein & Co. A U.S. Serial Set supplement was published by GPO for the 97th Congress (1981-1982) with an addendum entitled "Numerical Lists of the Documents and Reports". Beginning with the 98th Congress (1983-1984), GPO has produced a catalog volume of all documents and reports issued each cxongress. It is entitled United States Congressional Serial Set Catalog. At the start of each volume is a "Numerical List of Documents and Reports" and a "Schedule of Serial Set Volumes". Lastly, GPO publishes final schedules of Serial Set volumes for each congressional session in GPO's newsletter to federal depository libraries entitled Administrative Notes Technical Supplement. The schedule of volumes of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set from 1970 to the present as well an overview of the Serial Set is available on LLSDC's Legislative Source Book.

      Sometimes the text of bills as introduced is reprinted in related hearing documents, but usually in order to obtain the text of old congressional bills and resolutions you generally have to go to a microform set of them. The Law Library of Congress has two sets of Congressional bills on microform and also maintains a bound hardcopy set of most all Congressional bills from the 6th Congress forward. Some libraries around the country have also acquired these microform sets, and a search on OCLC with the phrase "bills and resolutions" should reveal most of those libraries. The CIS collection of bills, resolutions and laws on microfiche from 1933 to the present (73rd Congress forward) is also available for purchase as a set, as a Congress, or as an individual bill from the LexisNexis Academic and Library Solutions CIS documents offprint service (1-800-638-8380). Finally, between the 96th Congress and the 106th Congress (1979-2000) the Government Printing Office has published all House and Senate bills on microfiche with a final cumulative finding aid for each congressional session. Many federal depository libraries around the country have this series in their depository collection.

      Thousands of bill files from previous congresses are maintained at the Center for Legislative Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (1-202-501-5350). Pursuant to congressional instructions, most Senate archives are available to researchers after 20 years have past and most House archives are available after 30 years. The documents generally come from congressional committees but the quality and quantity of material sent to the National Archives may differ significantly according to the policies and practices of a chamber and those of the committee at the time they are sent. The papers of individual members of Congress are not sent to the National Archives but may be stored in local libraries or other establishments. At the Center, those researching the legislative history of a public law may find the text of related bills as well as correspondence to a House or Senate committee concerning it. The Center is also likely to have committee hearings and other documents related to the legislation.

      Before the government began publishing the Congressional Record in 1873 there were various private publishers of congressional proceedings and debates. The most noteworthy of these are the Annals of Congress (1789-1824, published retrospectively by Gales and Seaton), the Register of Debates (1824-1837, published each session by Gales and Seaton), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873, published weekly by Blair and Rives). The debates in these publications were often news summaries or selected speeches (sometimes called sketches) rather than verbatim remarks and each volume (normally organized by congressional session) has an attached index. The Library of Congress has optically scanned these early records in its American Memory Project's A Century of Lawmaking For a New Nation. Although generally legible, these optically scanned PDF documents (with quite small print) are not full text searchable, but they do have various indices as "navigators" to the system. Many libraries around the country also hold these old series in paper or microform.

      The Constitution of the United States (Article I, section 5) requires that congressional proceedings be published in a House Journal and a Senate Journal, but these journals, still being published since 1789, do not reproduce any congressional debate. The journals merely publish the daily minutes on what measures were introduced, what measures passed, what appointees were confirmed, what communications were received, what votes were taken, and so on. However there is an index to each journal volume and a tabular index showing what actions were taken on bills and resolutions and on what page number of the journal that action is related. Since predecessor publications to the Congressional Record did not (until 1867) have any history of bills and resolutions, these journals can be an aid in early legislative history research, but for the most part the contents of the journals are covered in the Congressional Record. Before 1954 House and Senate journals were published as part of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Indices to the House Journal are available on GPO Access from 1991 to the last completed Congress.

      For researching early Congressional documents, there is no substitute for the comprehensive legislative indices produced by LexisNexis Academic and Library Solutions (LNALS), formerly known as Congressional Information Service (CIS). CIS also supplies full-text in microfiche of the documents cited in its indices. For instance there are the CIS U.S. Serial Index and the CIS Serial Set on Microfiche (1789-1969). The new Part 13 (in four volumes) to the Serial Set index is organized by bill number in each Congress and shows related report numbers, even to reports (1817-1845) that may not have originally included the bill number to which they pertain. LexisNexis has recently digitized (in PDF) its CIS Serial Set microfiche (1789-1969) so that congressional reports associated with bills that were enacted can be easily accessed by public law number (only available on LexisNexis Congressional). There is also the CIS Congressional Hearings Index and Microfiche (1833-1969), the CIS Unpublished Senate Committee Index and Microfiche (1823-1972), the CIS Unpublished House Committee Hearings Index and Microfiche (1833-1958), the CIS Congressional Committee Prints Index and Microfiche (1830-1969), and the CIS Senate Executive Documents and Reports Index and Microfiche (1817-1969). All these indices (but not the full text) are available electronically on the CIS Congressional Master File I (CD), on the LexisNexis Congressional service marketed to academic institutions, on the LexisNexis service (LEGIS library; CISHST file), and Lexis.com (Federal - U.S.; Legislative Histories and Material; CIS/Historical Index). If you use these services with key phrases, field limiters, and date parameters, you may find a wealth of legislative history material on any particular law. A User Guide to the CIS indices is also available. If your library does not have the complete CIS full text microfiche collection, the LNALS documents offprint service (1-800-227-2477) will, for a fee, supply you with the full text of specific microfiche or paper copies referenced in the CIS indices, but you must have the CIS document accession number.

      Many older legislative documents including bills, reports, hearings, the Congressional Record and other items, can also be located in the federal depository libraries, as well libraries in law firms, federal agencies, U.S. courts, universities, and local governments around the country. For information on such documents in libraries in the Washington, D.C. area, see LLSDC's Union List of Legislative Documents.  

 
       In determining congressional intent the greatest weight is almost always accorded to the plain meaning of a statute. Legislative histories to laws are used to help clarify the meaning of a statute, especially when that meaning is in doubt. Although there is considerable variation, generally, in a legislative history of a U.S. public law, the greatest weight is usually accorded to the joint explanatory statement in a bill's conference report (when there is one) followed by the explanations and summaries in committee reports. Next, congressional debate or remarks, especially by the bills' principal sponsors or floor managers, are usually accorded stature followed closely by the text of the bill(s) as it developed from earlier versions (differing language may show intent). Then congressional hearings and statements of witnesses (especially witnesses from agencies that may implement the law) have bearing followed by committee prints (studies or drafts of pre-introduced legislation) and markup amendments and other documents in committee (not usually published). When no explanations are available from official sources sometimes secondary source material, like news articles, may be accorded some weight as to why Congress is taking a particular action in a federal law.

      Usually the easiest way to find relevant material on a particular provision is to first find the point that the provision got into the law's (or bill's) development and then look for documents associated with that point. First, closely examine the provision and its context in the law and in earlier bill versions. Then ask pertinent questions. Was it introduced that way, and if so did the sponsor have any introductory remarks on the issue (usually on the Senate side and sometimes on the House side in the Extension of Remarks)? Was it favorably received by the administering agency in their testimony or did they suggest amendments that were subsequently adopted? Did it first appear when the committee reported the bill? Is there a committee amendment markup summary to the bill? What did the accompanying committee report say about the bill or it's provisions? Was there a section-by-section summary in the committee report? Did it only come up in one chamber (House or Senate) or in both chambers? Were there other relevant legislative measures or reports in the current Congress or in prior congresses? Were there any references to it in the Congressional Record debates or in a member's inserted remarks? Was it introduced as a floor amendment and if so what did the amendment sponsor say on the floor? Did it appear first in the conference report? What does the joint explanatory statement in the conference report say about it? Were there other references to the provision when the House and Senate agreed to the conference report on the bill? Did key sponsors or floor managers make other remarks or explanatory summaries? Did the President make a statement when signing the legislation into law (see Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents)? These and other questions are ones that should be asked when sifting for language of legislative intent.

      In recent years searching for legislative intent language became much easier by the ability to perform word searches using electronic databases. Language in committee reports (including conference reports) can be searched across multiple reports and Congresses on various services including Westlaw (back to 1948 on LH file), Lexis (back to 1990 on its CMTRPT file), THOMAS (each Congress back to 1995), GPO Access (each Congress back to 1993), CQ.com On Congress (each Congress back to 1989), and GalleryWatch.com (each Congress back to 1997). Language in the daily edition of the Congressional Record can also be searched all at once in various services including Westlaw (back to 1985 in its CR file), LexisNexis (back to 1985 in its RECORD file), THOMAS (by Congress back to 1989), GPO Access (by Congress back to 1994), CQ.com (CQ Archives by Congress back to 1989), and GalleryWatch.com (by Congress back to 1999).

      These same electronic services are also available to search across the text of bills and resolutions for particular words or phrases. This may be helpful in determining what other measures may have had similar provisions or what bill versions first saw the appearance of a particular provision. For free, THOMAS has the full text of bills from 1989 forward. It is searchable for each congress beginning with the 101st (1989). GPO Access also has the full text of bills and they can be searched across congresses beginning with the 103rd Congress (use the shift key and block the congresses desired). LexisNexis has full text of bills searchable by each congress (BLTEXT, BLT105, etc.) from 1989 forward and Westlaw has full text of bills searchable across congresses (BILLTXT-OLD) from 1991 forward, not including the present Congress (BILLTEXT). CQ Archives has the full text of bills searchable by each Congress, starting with the 100th Congress (1987) and Gallery Watch has searchable bill text beginning with the 105th Congress (1997).

      There is no comprehensive way to search electronically for legislative intent language in Congressional hearings. Most congressional committee Web sites generally make available prepared written statements and some make available transcripts of oral remarks. However, these statements and transcripts are not searchable except by using your browser's edit/find function for each document. GPO Access also has many full text congressional hearings in PDF format beginning in 1997 with the 104th Congress. LLSDC's Legislative Source Book web site "Quick Links to House and Senate Committee Documents and Hearings" is a good source to use to quickly find these documents on both GPO Access and committee web sites.

      Two commercial services, Federal News Service (FNS) and Federal Document Clearing House (FDCH - now CQ Transcripts on CQ.com) do make available in electronic form all written statements they can obtain. These two services also selectively transcribe the oral statements and questions and answers of selected witnesses or selected committees holding a hearing. They also provide transcripts of many Washington press briefings and news shows and make all of these available to secondary providers like Lexis, Westlaw, Dialog, Dow Jones, and GalleryWatch. In addition to FNS and FDCH, a number of services provide audio or video recordings including C-SPAN Archives.org, CapitolPulse.com, and CapitolHearings.org (see Federal Legislative History Documents: Listings of Electronic Sources with Years/Congresses Available).

      LexisNexis has several electronic files with hearing material from the above services in its LEGIS library including FEDNEW (from August, 1988 forward), CNGTST (from September, 1993 forward) POLTRN (from 1995 forward) and NNNTRN (from 1994 forward). Westlaw also has several congressional hearing files including USTESTIMONY (from 1993 forward), USPOLTRANS (from 1994 forward), and CONGTMY (from July, 1995 forward). Committee testimony and Congressional transcript files begin in 1995 on CQ.com and it's CQ Archives file of transcripts begin in 1990. A near complete listing and quick comparison of the above (and other) material can be found in an article and chart in LLSDC's Legislative Source Book entitled "Internet and Online Sources of Legislative and Regulatory Information."

      Electronic searching for legislative intent can also be done in omnibus news databases like those located on Lexis, Westlaw, and Dow Jones. You can also search specialized newsletters like those published by the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA). Such searches, as well as those searching all reports, bills, debates, and testimony can take you far beyond the documents prescribed in a public law's compiled legislative history. But sometimes it is these searches that turn up related legislation and explanations of actions not covered (or not easily found) in a normal legislative history. For researchers interested in finding any explanation of legislative intent for the smallest provision of a law such searches may indeed prove fruitful. However, in a law's interpretation, courts are not likely to give much weight to non-legislative documents or to legislative documents far removed from the original legislation. On the other hand, to a federal agency that must construe the intent of Congress when proposing implementing regulations stemming from a law or to a third party commenting on those proposed regulations, any support from a law's legislative history may prove persuasive.

      Good luck in hunting, compiling, and sifting those documents.

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FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE HISTORY RESEARCH: LINKS TO OTHER RELATED WEB SITES

AALLnet.org - Reprint from the Colorado Lawyer - Uncovering Federal Legislative History 
Arizona State University - Law Library - Federal Legislative History: A Research Guide 
Boston College Law Library - Federal Legislative Histories - Information Guide #6 
Boston University Law Library - Legislative History Research 
Columbia University Libraries - U.S. Government Documents - The Legislative Process 
Congressional Research Service - Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends
Duke University School of Law Library - Research Guides - Federal Legislative History