13 Finding and Using Legislative History
Legislative history research (both federal and state) is another topic that first year research and writing courses do not cover in a comprehensive way. This chapter will explain the reasons you might research legislative history, sources (documents) of legislative history, legislative process, and where to find legislative history documents.
Learning Goals
After reading this chapter, you will be able to
- Explain federal and state legislative process.
- Identify a variety of free and subscription resources to find legislative history materials.
- Locate relevant documents to determine the legislative intent or goals of enacted legislation.
- Explain the legislative history information in the context of the client scenario.
Why research legislative history?
Legislative history research might come up in the context of academic writing. However, in practice, there are a couple of common types of legislative research you might need to do: bill tracking and researching the “legislative intent” underlying a statute to help with statutory interpretation.
What is legislative history?
Legislative history is a secondary source consisting of bill versions, documents, reports, transcripts of testimony, debates, and statements that lead up to the passage of a law which is then codified as a statute. Legislative history material is produced in the framework of the legislative process.
Legislative process
Put simply, legislative process is the procedure by which a proposed law becomes a law. The process is similar in both federal and state government. Below is a general overview of the legislative process:
- A bill is proposed or introduced.
- The bill is assigned to a committee.
- If the bill is released from the committee, it goes to the chamber (i.e. House or Senate) floor for debate, amendment, or vote.
- If the bill passes that chamber, it goes to the other chamber.
- The other chamber assigns the bill to a committee and if released, goes to debate and vote.
- If the other chamber makes changes, the bill must return to the original chamber for concurrence.
- The bill will go to conference committee to resolve differences and issue a report outlining the final version.
- After the bill has been passed in identical form by both chambers of congress, it is an “enrolled” bill that goes to the President (or State Governor) for signature or veto.
Helpful resources on federal legislative process: Congressional website, Congress.gov, the White House website, whitehouse.gov, the House of Representatives website, house.gov; Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report.
Helpful resources on state legislative process: How Ideas Become Law on the Oregon Legislature’s website, Overview of California Legislative Process on the California State Association of Counties website.pdf, Overview of the Legislative Process on the Washington Legislature’s website, Legislative Process on the National Conference of State Legislatures website