LibGuides: Legislative History: Tracking Pending Legislation

Tracking Pending Legislation

While legislative history research focuses on laws in retrospect, researchers may need to track pending legislation that could impact the law they are studying. Researchers can track pending legislation using many of the same tools needed for compiling a legislative history. Some of these tools are described below.

(Researchers hoping to track pending legislation on the state level may be able to track pending legislation using that state legislature's website.)

GovTrack.us
(Free): GovTrack.us provides researchers with comprehensive U.S. Congressional legislative tracking. It does this by pulling information from official government websites and compiling them into one place.
Congress.gov
(Free): Thomas.gov provides researchers with access to bill and summary information for bills active within the current Congress. By searching within this area, researchers can track the progress of a bill through the legislative process.
Lexis+
(Subscription Access only): Lexis Advance allows researchers to track various bills. To track these documents, click on the link for Browse Sources and then using the box on the left side of the page, search for bill tracking. You can then select the proper databases to search.
ProQuest Congressional
(Subscription Access only): To access bill tracking reports within ProQuest Congressional, researchers must select Legislative Histories, Bills & Laws from the left hand menu. Then researchers can search by subject or bill number. Subject searching will allow for the researcher to narrow the search by the name of the bill sponsor, bill status, or Congress. However, before running the search researchers should make sure the Bill Tracking toggle is selected.
Westlaw Edge
(Subscription Access only): To track bills using Westlaw , researchers should select Statutes and Court Rules from the All Materials box. They can then select Bill Tracking from the Tools and Resources menu on the right hand side of the screen. Researchers can then choose to research state or federal legislation as well as search using terms and connectors, natural language, or a guided search template.

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Tracking Pending Legislation