LibGuides: Legislative History: Bills

Why are bills important to the legislative history process?

The text of a bill as it is introduced into Congress and any editing made to it as it moves through the legislative process allows researchers to surmise (or at least attempt to surmise) the intent of Congress in passing the bill into law. Unfortunately, analysis of a bill and any editing made to it requires the researcher to make assumptions difficult to prove without other documentation of legislative intent. Despite this problem, bills remain a useful tool in legislative history research because they allow the researcher to see how a bill has evolved through the legislative process.

Print Resources

NCCU's Law Library provides researchers with multiple access points for locating the text of bills in print.

Compiled Legislative Histories: Many compiled legislative histories will provide researchers with the text of the bill they are researching. Please see the Compiled Legislative Histories tab for information about how to locate these research tools.

Congressional Record: Bills are often read into the Congressional Record when they are introduced. Researchers can locate the text of bills through the date they were introduced if that date is known. NCCU's Law Library allows for researchers to access the Congressional Record through both microfiche and print. Microfiche access spans 1949 to present. Print access spans from 1926 to present. The Congressional Record is located on the 2nd floor of the Law Library.

Congressional Information Service materials (CIS): To locate bills using CIS, begin by using the Legislative Histories volumes. They are organized by public law number. Look up your bill within the proper volume. There you will locate a CIS citation giving you the number assigned to the related CIS microfiche containing the document. The microfiche will be filed by year and then by document number within each year.

Electronic Resources

American Memory Project
(Free): The American Memory Project is a project of the Library of Congress providing access to documentation of the American experience. As a part of the project, selected bills introduced in early Congresses are available. House bill coverage begins with the 6th Congress and ends with the 42nd Congress. Senate bill coverage begins with the 16th Congress and ends with the 42nd Congress.
Govinfo.gov
(Free): This website provides researchers access to the text of all published versions of Congressional bills from the 103rd (1993-94) Congress to present. The website is updated daily when Congress is in session.
Congress.gov
(Free): Congress.gov provides researchers access to the text of bills introduced before the House and Senate. Researchers can search Thomas through browsing and searching Public Law numbers, browsing bills by sponsor, and word searching. Full text coverage spans from the 101st (1989-1990) Congress to present. Partial coverage (bill summary and status reports) spans from the 93rd (1973) Congress to present.
HeinOnline
(Subscription Access only): Bills can be searched for in HeinOnline through the U.S. Congressional Documents Library. From this library, researchers can access and search Congressional Record bound and daily volumes. The text of a bill is often times read into the Congressional Record when it is introduced, so this resource can provide easy access if the researchers knows when the bill was introduced.
Lexis+
(Subscription Access only): To locate bills using Lexis Advance, select the Browse Sources link. Then in the box on the left hand side of the screen, search for bills. This will pull up access to the many bill databases available for searching.
ProQuest Congressional
(Subscription Access only): ProQuest Congressional allows researchers to search for Congressional bills by keyword searches, the name of a bill sponsor, or by bill number. Coverage spans from the 91st (1969-70) Congress to present.
Westlaw Edge
(Subscription Access only): To locate bills using Westlaw, click on the Proposed & Enacted Legislation link from the All Content tab. From there, researchers can locate Congressional bills or select the appropriate Content Tab.

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Legislative History

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Why are bills important to the legislative history process?

Print Resources

Electronic Resources