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Find Policies and Legal Research: Find Legislative Histories

Legislative histories

Legislative histories are a listing of the materials produced by congress or state legislatures during the process of creating and enacting laws, statutes, or codes. Some common documents include:

  • Bills
  • Committee Reports
  • Committee Prints
  • Committee Markups
  • Committee Analysis
  • Congressional Debates
  • Congressional Hearings
  • Fiscal Data
  • Partial Amendments
  • Voting records

Usually, the main purpose of the legislative history is to help interpret the statute or laws, and determine the context for the creation or amendments. This is known as the legislative intent. 

The legislative history only consists of the listing of documents created and the date they were created. If you are looking for an actual document contained in the history, you will need to search for that document separately. You can use the citing information contained in the legislative history to conduct an additional search for that specific document. 

You can use a citation to conduct your search. If you do not have a citation, you can use the Office of the Law Revision Counsel United States Code: Popular Name Tool to look up the popular name of a law or act. The citation numbers and letters will be listed, for example Pub. L. 114-255.  Please be aware, this website may be slow to open. You can browse the list or search for a specific listing using the Find or Ctrl-F feature.

How to find legislative histories

  1. From the Nexis Uni main search page, type the citation in the search box:
    • 116 pl 72
  2. Click on the drop-down menu next to Previous 2 Years and select All available dates. 
  3. Click search to get your results. 
  4. Click on the Preview button to the right of each result to quickly learn more about the resource.
  5. You may need to use the Narrow By column on the side of the results to continue to narrow by date or source.
  1. From the Nexis Uni main search page, type the citation in the top search box:
    • Animal cruelty prevention act
  2. Click on the drop-down menu next to Previous 2 Years and select All available dates. 
  3. Click search to see your results.
  4. In the top box on the side of your results, click on Statutes and Legislation. 
  5. In the Narrow By column on the side of the results, click Category to see options. Click on Select multiple in the list. Check the boxes for Public Laws/ALS and Legislative Histories.  Click on the OK button to proceed.
    • NOTE: There may not be a Public Laws option, in that case just choose Legislative Histories.
  6. Under Jurisdiction select the appropriate jurisdiction. For the Animal cruelty and prevention act, the jurisdiction is U.S. Federal. 
  7. Click on the Preview button to the right of each result to find the correct document.
  8. You may need to use the Narrow By column on the side of the results to continue to narrow by timeline or sources.

Congressional Research Service reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) creates up-to-date, analytical, and nonpartisan reports on all issues facing Congress. The creators consist of research analysts, economists, lawyers, scientists, and other information professionals. CRS reports help prepare Congress when statutes or laws are presented on those issues. They range from a few pages to over a hundred. It is a great resource to find background information, party stance, and possible future issues, and to approach complex issues from a variety of perspectives. 

How to find Congressional Research Service reports

  1. From the Nexis Uni main search page, type the citation or search terms in the top search box:
    • Do not call registry
  2. Make sure you change the date drop-down menu from Previous 2 Years to All available dates. 
  3. Click search.
  4. In the top box on the side of your results, click on Statutes and Legislation. 
  5. In the Narrow By column on the side of the results, click Category to see options. Click Legislative Histories.
  6. In the Narrow By column, click Sources, and select Congressional Research Service Reports.
  7. Click on the Preview button to find the correct document. You may need to narrow the results using the column on the left by jurisdiction, timeline, or source.