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Federal Legislative History

How to search for compiled federal legislative histories and how to find federal legislative documents to compile your own federal legislative history.

Where Do I Find Compiled Federal Legislative Histories?

Compiled federal legislative histories typically have all the documents a researcher needs to discern legislative intent in one publication.  Researchers should always try to look for a compiled federal legislative history first.  This can save you time because all the documents will be in one place.

Traditionally, there was no "one source" for legislative history materials for a piece of federal legislation.  A complex piece of legislation would have involved several different committees, each with a different publication schedule, thus making it difficult to find all the relevant pieces of a legislative history at one time. To help with this, Congressional committees and private publishers often compiled and published legislative histories for specific acts.  This has changed with the introduction of ProQuest Congressional and other legislative history databases.  Most of these databases now make it easy to locate all the relevant federal legislation documents in one place, which makes it easier for a researcher to compile their own comprehensive legislative histories.  

Here's a list of the most common resources where you can find compiled federal legislative histories: 

  • Department of Justice Legislative Histories: A small collection of significant legislative histories on a wide range of topics compiled by DOJ librarians; available online.
  • GMU Library Catalog: To locate compiled legislative histories at the George Mason Law Library, search using keywords for your topic and the phrase “legislative history", for example, "Covid Cares Federal Legislative History."  
  •  HeinOnline: U.S. Federal Legislative History Library (available to Mason users only).
  • ProQuest Congressional: Online legislative histories, bills, and congressional documents. An extensive collection of documents that comprise a federal legislative history.  Also includes legislative histories from 1969 to the present day.  Available to Mason users only.  
  • ProQuest Legislative Insight: Legislative and executive branch documents relating to the passage of a bill.  Will include a legislative history with other federal government documents that are directly related to the bill.   Available to Mason users only.  
  • United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN): available on Westlaw, USCCAN publishes the full text of most public laws, lists the reports associated with bills, lists the dates of debate, and reprints portions of the most significant reports.  This is also available in the Law Library, on the 2nd floor, in Row 213.  Print coverage ends in 2015  . 
  • Westlaw : Available to Scalia law users only.  Some of the easiest places to start your search for a compiled federal legislative history on Westlaw are the following resources:
    • GAO Legislative Histories: Coverage 1915-1995.
    • Arnold & Porter Legislative History Collection: 31 legislative histories compiled by the Arnold & Porter law firm.

Print Sources to Determine if a Compiled Legislative History is Available: