This guide explains the legislative history research process and identifies resources for finding documentation generated during the legislative process: bills, resolutions, committee reports, committee testimony and exhibits, floor debates and other testimony, and presidential signing statements.
Legislative history refers to the documents generated during the process of a statute's enactment. These documents include, among other things: proposed bills, committee hearings, committee reports and floor debates. A practitioner, judge, or legal scholar assembles some or all of the documents associated with a particular statute, to trace its historical path, and sometimes with the hope of uncovering legislative intent. Historical materials plot the chronology of a law's original passage, its amendments, hearings, committee reports, and committee and floor votes.
Attorneys, judges, and legal scholars conduct legislative history research for a range of reasons, one of which is to try to interpret specific language in a statute. If the plain meaning of a statutory provision is not clear, or if court decisions or regulations associated with it have not cleared uncertainty in its application, legislative history might be useful as a persuasive tool.
Reference librarians are available to assist you.
In Person: 1st Floor, Reference
Phone: 414-288-3837
Email: via web form