Legislative History Resources Reference Chart
This chart provides details of the legislative process and all of the documents created during the process.
Legislative history is a term that refers to the documents that are produced by Congress as a bill is introduced, studied and debated. Our Legislative History Research Guide provides details of the legislative process and all of the documents created during the process. It also identifies the most useful resources for locating the documents, including compiled legislative histories. The purpose of this chart is to provide a more comprehensive look at the library resources, as well as free web sources, available for locating specific Congressional documents.
|Lexis||Browse Sources > Committee Reports (From 101st Congress, 2d Session (1990) to present, although the coverage of the 101st and 102nd Congresses is only selective.)|
|Westlaw||Proposed & Enacted Legislation > Tools: Legislative History|
|United States Congressional Serial Set||House Reports and Senate Reports volumes, Williams KF29 .U5, from 97th Congress (1981) to present.|
|USCCAN (United States Code Congressional and Administrative News)||Legislative History volumes, Williams KF48 .U54. Selected reports from 78th Congress, 2d Session (1944).|
|From the 1st Congress (1789-1969)||Williams Media, Cabinets A1 through A4|
|(1970-2004)||Williams Media, Cabinets B3 through B11|
|Congressional Serial Set Catalog(free web)||Choose Advanced Search and click on Congressional Serial Set. Search Committee Reports from the 95th Congress (1977) to present.|
|ProQuest Congessional (formerly Lexis-Nexis Congressional)||Search Committee Report listings from 1789 to present. First "Clear All", then choose "Serial Set" and "House and Senate Reports." Make sure to choose the correct year or Congress at the bottom of the page.|
|U.S. Congressional Serial Set: Numerical Lists of Documents and Reports (free web)||85th to 109th Congress (1957-2006)|
|CIS U.S. Serial Set Index||Williams Media, Z1223.Z9 C65 (1789-1998)|
Congressional Debates (Congressional Record)
|FDsys.gov (free web)||Daily Edition, 1994 to present.
Bound editions, 1999-2001
|Congress.gov (free web)||From 101st Congress (1989) to present. Daily Edition.|
|HeinOnline||Bound Editions of Congressional Record, 1873 to 2006. Also includes Annals of Congress, Register of Debates & Congressional Globe.
Daily Edition of Congressional Record, 101st Congress (1990) to present.
|ProQuest Congressional (formerly Lexis-Nexis Congressional)||
All Bound Editions, 1789-1997. Includes Annals of Congress, Register of Debates & Congressional Globe.Daily Edition, 1985 to present. From 99th Congress (1985) to present.
|Lexis||Browse Sources > Congressional Record.(From 99th Congress (1985) to present. Daily Edition.)|
|Westlaw||Proposed & Enacted Legislation > Tools: Legislative History > Congressional Record|
|LLMC||Bound Edition from v. 1 (1873) - v. 4 (1876) and v. 136 (1990) - v. 152 (2006)|
|Century of Lawmaking (free web)||
Annals of Congress (1789-1825, 1st-18th Congresses). Bound Edition.
Register of Debates (1824-1839, 18th-25th Congresses). Bound Edition.
The Congressional Globe (1833-1873, 23rd-42d Congresses). Bound Edition.
|Congressional Record||Williams KF35 .A26. Daily edition issues are discarded when the bound edition arrives. From 43rd Congress (1873). Bound Editions to 2003; Daily Editions 2003-7/2013.|
|Congressional Globe||Williams KF35 .A25. From 23rd to 42nd Congress (1833 to 1873). Bound Edition.|
|Annals of Congress||Williams KF35. A2 1834. Bound Edition. From 1st to 18th Congress (1789 to 1824). Bound Edition.|
|Congressional Record||Williams Media, Cabinet B16 & B17. From 1873. Bound Edition to 2003. Daily Edition 2003-present.|
|Congressional Globe||Williams Media, Cabinet A1. From 1868 to 1873. Bound Edition.|
|Congressional Record||Williams KF35 .A26. There is an index for each volume|
|Sessions & Years of Congress with Corresponding Congressional Record Volume Numbers (free web)||Table comparing years, Congressional Record volumes and Congresses (useful when using LLMC database, which lists debates by volume only).|