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Sources of Free Legal Research: Legislative History

Introduction to Free Sources for Legislative History

Legislative History is made up of the documents preceding and accompanying the enactment of a statute. These documents generally include: bills, public laws, floor debates, and committee hearings, prints, and reports.  Attorneys and judges often use legislative history to attempt to determine the legislative intent behind a statute.

Free Sources for Federal Legislative History

Congressional Bills

  • Congress.gov - House Bills from 1799 to the present (with the exception of the 12th Congress - 1811-1813).  Senate Bills from 1819 to the present.  Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text).
  • GovInfo - Contains all published versions of bills from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress forward. Browseable by Congressional session and type of legislation. Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text). 

Congressional Hearings

  • GovInfo - Provides access to copies of select hearings from 1945 to the present. Browseable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text). To search the full text of hearings, use the advanced search interface and select Congressional Hearings.
  • Rutgers School of Law - Contains selected hearings from 1970s to 1999. Additional hearings and documents harvested from the GPO websites from 2000 forward are also included as well.

Congressional Committee Reports and Committee Prints

  • GovInfo - from 1955 to the present.  Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword.
  • Congress.gov - Contains Committee Reports from 1995 to the present. Browsable and searchable by report number and keyword using the advanced search interface.
  • American Memory - Provided by the Library of Congress contains selected documents and reports of the U.S. Serial Set. Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword.

Congressional Debates

Free Sources for State Legislative History

Most states allow access to the full text of bills from the current legislative session and you can often search back several years.  However, other materials such as hearings, debates, and reports are often more difficult to locate.  The Library of Congress provides its Guide to Law Online, with links to free web-based state legislative history resources for each of the Fifty States.

New York

New York State Legislature Bills and Chapter Laws - from 1995 to present.  Use the drop down on the left to select Bills or Chapter Laws.

New York State Assembly Bills - 1999 to present. 

New York Senate Bills and Hearing Transcripts - use the drop down to select  Bills or Hearings (search by month, year, sponsor, and keyword).

New York State Archives Bill Jackets - from 1993 - 2021.  Click view all, and filter by year.  Narrow by bill number, chapter law, or keyword.

 

Other Federal Legislative History Resources