Why does the mere mention of federal legislative history cause most legal researchers to cringe? Because tracing the activity of a bill or statute through Congress can be very tedious. Although some of the drudgery of determining congressional intent has disappeared in more recent years due to the availability of online materials, compiling a pre-1970s history is still challenging. This article examines the sources for federal legislative history that are currently available both on- and off-line that the author has found to be most useful.

The major components of a federal legislative history are bills, committee reports, hearings, and legislative remarks/debate. These materials are available in primary documents published by the U.S. Government Printing Office, but commercial finding tools and compilations of legislative history resources exist to aid the researcher in tracking down specific sources.

Before attempting to compile a federal legislative history on your own, look for an already compiled history for the particular act you are researching. If the subject of your research is a major piece of legislation, more than likely someone has already compiled its legislative history either in book or article format. Check the catalog of your local law library or an index to legal periodicals first. A good print resource is Nancy P. Johnson's Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories (1979-date). You can also try any of the Internet search engines to find federal legislative histories on the World Wide Web.

After you have determined that a compiled version of the history of your act does not exist, you can turn to several sources to get started. One excellent source is the U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). Published by West Group and begun in 1941 (77th Congress), USCCAN reprints all federal public laws and provides selective coverage for legislative history. Bound volumes are issued at the completion of each congressional session, with advance sheets for current material. In the legislative history volumes you will find dates of consideration and passage along with citations to House and Senate Committee Reports. Usually, either the House or Senate Report is reprinted in full. Hearings are not included. In the final volume for each session a chart is provided which lists the bill number, report number(s) and dates of consideration and passage for each public law. USCCAN is also available on Westlaw where the full-text searching capability greatly facilitates finding references to particular bills or sections.

Another starting point is The Congressional Index published by Commerce Clearing House. This two volume loose-leaf contains a comprehensive index to each Congress. One volume covers the Senate; another volume covers the House. References are to hearings, reports, and debates. Access is by subject, sponsor, bill number, and date of introduction. There is a status table giving a chronological listing of action taken on each bill once hearings have begun. Each tab or section is divided into status, current status and latest additions. You must check all three places to obtain complete information.

Unknown to many, the U.S. Statutes at Large contains a brief summary of the legislative history of each public law. This summary is printed at the end of the law beginning with the laws of the 94th Congress in 1975. Listings include House and Senate report cites, date of consideration and passage and presidential communications.

For the most complete index to congressional publications, including hearings, reports, and committee prints from 1970 to the present, turn to The Congressional Information Service: CIS Index and Abstracts (CIS/Index). CIS/Index is issued monthly and cumulates annually. The full text of the documents are on microfiche, filed by year and the CIS/Index accession number. The abstract volumes contain summaries of each publication and references to page numbers where individuals spoke. Direct access to the abstracts and the documents is through the index volumes and is by subject, speaker or author, popular name of the bill or law, bill, report or document number, and committee or sub-committee chairperson. From 1970-1983, a special legislative history section, organized by Public Law number, is found at the end of each bound abstract volume. As of 1984, a separate annual legislative history volume is issued, organized by public law number with abstracts included. CIS/Index is available electronically through LEXIS-NEXIS, the Internet and on CD-ROM.

Congressional indexing by CIS from the years 1789-1969 are covered without abstracting in a number of separate indexes. These historical indexes were integrated into one CD-ROM and sold as Congressional Masterfile 1. Recently discontinued in CD-ROM format, the 1789-1969 material can still be accessed in book format or on the Web through LEXIS-NEXIS Universe.

The Congressional Record, which started in 1873, is the official record of the U.S. Congress. It is an important source for locating congressional floor debates. Published daily while Congress is in session, the Record cumulates annually with an index. The index to the daily edition is published every two weeks. The pagination of the daily issues is completely renumbered once they are cumulated into the bound edition. It is important to remember that the daily index will only correspond to the daily issues and the annual index will only correspond to the bound edition. Access to the index is by subject, names of legislators, and titles of legislation. A separate section is organized by bill number entitled: "History of Bills and Resolutions" which lists action taken on all bills. Some House and Senate Reports may be included in the Record, but no hearings. The Congressional Record can be searched full-text on both LEXIS and Westlaw from 1985 to the present. For Internet coverage check out the websites described below.

THOMAS @ http://thomas.loc.gov/ is the Library of Congress' website and contains a wealth of federal legislative materials. Its Congressional Record coverage goes back to the 101st Congress (1989-90). THOMAS also contains the full text of federal bills from 1989 with summaries back to 1973, roll call votes from 1989 and the text of committee reports from 1995.

GPO Access @ http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/index.html from the U.S. Government Printing Office is rich with government publications. Its legislative page provides access to the Congressional Record from 1994 to the present, congressional reports from 1995 to the present, bills from 1993 to the present and some congressional hearings from 1997 to the present.

The availability of congressional material on-line is a true asset to anyone researching legislation. Full-text searching enables the researcher to pinpoint references to specific sections of an act. This is a feature that none of the hard copy resources provide and allows the researcher to more easily determine the intent of the legislation. Hopefully for legal researchers the scope of legislative materials online will continue to expand in the future.