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Vernon E. Jordan Law Library

Federal Legislative History Research

This guide includes: coverage information for various legislative document types housed on free and commercial platforms, in the form of a chart.

Federal Legislative Information Source & Coverage Chart

To access documents for the time period indicated, click the time period, which will bring you directly to the collection of documents. 

Scroll to the right for additional entries.

Bills

Committee Reports

Committee Prints

House & Senate Documents

Congressional Record (Daily Edition)

Congressional Record (Bound Edition)

Committee Hearings

Presidential Signing Statements

Public Laws / Statutes At Large

Compiled Legislative Histories

Lexis Advance

1989-2012

1994-2003 (no longer updated)

1995-current

1789-current

n/a

1824-current

n/a

1776-current

U.S. Serial Set, 1777-current

Westlaw

1995-current

1948-current (selective coverage)

n/a

n/a

1985-current

n/a

1994-current

1986-current

HeinOnline

Selective coverage within the Federal Legislative History Library

Selective coverage within the Federal Legislative History Library

1914-current

1817-2019

1980-current

1873-2014

1889-current

1965-2018

1789-current

U.S. Federal Legislative History Library: 

Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories Database

Congress.gov

n/a

n/a

1989-current

n/a

House, 2012-current (varied coverage)

n/a

1973-present

n/a

GovInfo.gov

1993-current

1994-current

History of Bills, from the Congressional Record (about), 1983-current

 

 

© Howard University School of Law Library. Requests to republish or adapt this chart should be directed to reference@law.howard.edu.

Updated: February 2021.