Transcript Legislative History Research

Legislative History
Research
Florida Coastal School of Law Library
Why do we need to research
legislative histories?

To decipher what the legislature intended
when it enacted the law.
Federal Legislative
Histories
Federal Legislative Histories
What documents make up a legislative history?
(in order of their importance)
1. Committee Reports
2. Floor Debates
3. Committee Hearings
4. Bill Text & Amendments
5. Committee Prints
6. House & Senate Documents
7. Presidential Statements
Federal Legislative Histories
Step 1: Find the following information for the legislation in
question:
Public law number (or United States Statutes at Large chapter
number for legislation enacted prior to 1957),
 Date of enactment, and
 Number of the House or Senate bill that was enacted.
These things can be found in the United States Code (U.S.C.),
United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.), or the United States
Code Service (U.S.C.S.). The U.S.C.A. is the most helpful of the
three because it includes citations to the United States Code
Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.).
Look at the historical references that appear immediately after the
text of the statute. You will see the original and amending public
law numbers and the dates they were approved, and citations to
the Statutes at Large.

Federal Legislative Histories
Step 2: Check the U.S.C.C.A.N. for references to
legislative history documents.

U.S.C.C.A.N. reprints selected legislative history (for legislation
enacted since 1941) and provides the bill number, date of
enactment, and a list of all committee reports for all laws passed
by Congress.

The spines of the volumes should say “Laws” or “Legislative
History.”
Federal Legislative Histories
Step 3: Use these resources to find particular documents:
1)
2)
3)
CIS Serial Set Index Microfiche Library (1970-1997)
U.S. Congress Serial Set (1789-1969)
 From 1817 forward, has all committee reports.
Lexis-Nexis Congressional (available through the FCSL Library
“Research Resources” page):

House and Senate documents from 1995 onward, and of
committee reports from 1990.

Also provides access to the Congressional Information Service
Index from 1970, Congressional Indexes 1789-1969, the
Congressional Record from 1985, the United States Code, the
Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Register from 1980,
The Hill and Roll Call.
Federal Legislative Histories
Additional Resources for Documents:
 GPO Access
 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html
 PDF and text docs; 1993 forward, Congressional Reports from 1993
forward, Congressional Record from 1994 forward, select Committee
publications
 Thomas Legislative Information on the Internet
 http://thomas.loc.gov
 Bill summaries/status back to 1973, bill texts and Congress Record
1989 forward, Congressional reports from 1995 forward
 Lexis
 Westlaw
Federal Legislative Histories

Example: What was the legislative intent of the U.S.
Congress when it changed the national minimum
drinking age to 21?
 First,
find the statute in question in one of the
annotated statute sets (USCA or USCS).
 Second,
look for the legislative history notes. Look up
the Statutes at Large or the USCCAN citation,
whichever is available.
 Figure
out where to find the documents cited to in the
Statutes at Large or USCCAN.
Results

House Report No. 98-641 (Comm. On Public Works
and Transportation)


Congressional Record, Vol. 130 (1984)


Link to through Westlaw
At FCSL on microfiche
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Vol.
20, No. 29 (1984): July 17, Presidential Statement

Inter-library loan (FCSL has 1993 forward only)
Florida Legislative
Histories
Florida Legislative Histories

Find the bill number of the legislation in question.

Go to the Senate website and do a search for the bill.
(available for bills from 1998 forward)

A committee assigned the task of exploring a particular
bill may have written a report on the bill. Committee
reports or staff analyses, which summarize the intent of
the bill, are available in microfiche from 1988-1996.

To access staff analyses for legislation from 1998
forward, go to the Florida Senate site and there will be a
link to these reports on the page where the bill is found.
These reports are typically only a few pages long. To
obtain a copy of a staff analysis prior to 1987, contact
the Florida State Archives at: (850)245-6700.
Florida Legislative Histories

On Westlaw:
 Use
the FL-LH database to search for bill
analyses and House and Senate journals,
from the 1998 Regular Session through the
2003 Special Session D.
Florida Legislative Histories

Pre-1998 Documents:
 Committee
hearings are not published. If you want a
copy of a hearing, blank tape(s) must be sent to the
State Archives.
 Florida
Information Associates in Tallahassee (850)
878-0188 may be contacted for assistance with
researching legislative history.
 The Archive's
records begin in 1970. Records are
sketchy from 1970 until 1976. The committees retain
records for two years, then these records are
forwarded to the legislative library which retains them
for a few years. They are finally housed in the State
Archives.
Florida Legislative Histories

Example: Senate Bill 0306: Relating to Public
Protection
 Note
that there are three Staff Analyses available for
this bill.
 Note,
too, that previous versions of the text and the
record of the vote on that particular bill are available.
Further Assistance

If you have any questions, please feel free to
email us at: [email protected] or call us at: 6807612.

Also, the Reference Desk at the library is staffed
from:

9am–8pm Monday-Thursday
 10am-5pm Friday
 10am-2pm Saturday
 2pm-6pm Sunday