Finding Federal Legislative History

In making federal law, Congress generates many documents like bills, committee reports, and transcripts of hearings or debates. Called legislative history, these documents help lawyers analyze the meaning of a statute or glean legislative intent in passing a law. Often, researchers face threshold questions like whether a court will resort to legislative history, and what weight it will give particular documents. For an excellent overview of these and related issues, see Statutes and Statutory Construction (KF425 S3 - Treatises, Second floor). Be sure to look for the latest edition on the shelf. Researching legislative history can be a daunting project. Nevertheless, understanding how to use available tools speeds the task. In Cumberland's Law Library, the following resources are good starting points.

CIS/ANNUAL (KF49.C62 - Reference, First floor).
In 1970, Congressional Information Service (CIS) began publishing this comprehensive index of U.S. Congressional documents along with valuable summaries of reports, hearings, and other records. From 1970 to 1983, legislative history citations are in volumes labeled Abstracts. Starting in 1984, Legislative Histories are in separate volumes. Documents indexed from 1970 to 1986 plus the single year 1996 are available in full text in the Law Library's microfiche collection. Typically, the microfiche include hearings, committee reports, committee prints, House and Senate documents, and some special publications but exclude bills or debates. To find a document on fiche, note the year and CIS accession number. The accession number is a four-character code beginning with H, S, or J followed by a dash and serial number (for example, S521-44). To use microfiche, ask at the Circulation Desk. Documents not in our collection may be available from other sources. Samford University Library, for instance, houses many government documents along with indexing for records created before 1970.

United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (Federal Codes, First floor).
Since 1941, USCCAN compiles selected legislative histories. Presently, the service includes committee reports, conference reports, and explanatory statements for major federal legislation. This resource is a boon for researchers, as the publisher reprints many documents in full text.

CCH Congressional Index (Looseleafs, Lower level).
Use this publication to find the status and history of federal legislation from the 96^th Congress (1979 - 1980) to date. The looseleaf service does not reprint government documents in full. Rather, it traces the progress of bills and resolutions from introduction to final disposition, with references to hearings, debates, and committee reports. Find legislation by subject, principal sponsor, public law number, bill number, or popular name. CCH also includes information on members of Congress, committees, presidential nominations, and treaties.

Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories : A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books (KF42.2 1979 - Treatises, Second floor).
Nancy P. Johnson compiles this checklist of published legislative histories. She identifies books, articles, indexes, microfiche sets, and online services that cite or reprint relevant government documents. Search by topic, public law number, author, or title.

Union List of Legislative Histories (KF4 L4 - Treatises, Second floor).
The Law Librarians' Society of the District of Columbia publishes this list of legislative histories prepared or acquired by libraries in Washington, D.C. Arrangement is by public law number. The book identifies libraries holding a particular history and whether they are willing to lend it. Be sure to check the shelf for the latest edition.

These are just a few of the tools available. We collect many other governmental resources like the Congressional Record, Statues at Large, Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications. Selected legislative histories available on microfiche are listed on our website at http://lawlib.samford.edu/media/legishistory.html. Moreover, the Law Library's online catalog is a good tool for finding histories. Publishers often compile standalone works for significant federal acts. For instance, the Law Library's collection includes a seventeen-volume set called Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 : A Legislative History (KF1511.5 A15 1979 - Treatises, Second floor). To find such resources, search the online library catalog for keywords "legislative history" combined with substantive terms like bankruptcy, securities, taxation, antitrust or other areas of interest. If needed, ask a reference librarian for help.