CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS: COMMITTEE HEARINGS

Statements made in testimony before the committee considering the proposed legislation or statements by committee members have also been accepted by the courts as evidence of legislative intent. Hearings are not held on all pieces of federal legislation, and even if held may not be published. Those which are published are cited as follows: (Note that the Blue Book form does not include the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) classification number necessary to locate current hearings in the GSU Law Library)

Guns versus Butter: How the Military Budget Affects Aging Americans: Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Retirement Income & Employment of the House Select Comm. on Aging, 97th Cong. (1981)

GSU Law Holdings
Hearings are in microfiche, 1980-date. Hearings are arranged by CIS accession number from 1980-83 and by SuDocs number from 1984-date.

Online
Selective hearings are on LEXIS in the LEGIS library and on WESTLAW in the USTESTIMONY database and for the current congress at http://thomas.loc.gov. If you are using a computer in the College of Law, you can access CIS Congressional Universe at http//www.law.gsu.edu/library/ Lib/web_subscriptions.htm for hearings from the 101st Congress.

CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS: COMMITTEE PRINTS

Prints are reports or studies done by an agency, a committee, or staff for use by the committee members. They provide information to the committee on pending legislation or on other topics of interest. Their quality varies and their value depends upon how influential the print was in the committee decision. Cite as:

Staff of Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 81st Cong., Report on Antitrust Law (Comm. Print 1950).

GSU Law Holdings
Committee prints are in microfiche, 1980-date. Prints are arranged by CIS accession number from 1980-83 and by SuDocs number from 1984-date.

Online
Selective committee prints are available on LEXIS in the LEGIS library. If you are using a computer in the College of Law, you can access CIS Congressional Universe at http//www.law.gsu.edu/library /Lib/web_subscriptions.htm for selective prints from the 104th Congress.

CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS: CONGRESSIONAL DEBATES

Statements made in floor debates are useful as sources of legislative intent if the remarks are made by the sponsor of the legislation or by the chairperson of the committee that considered it. Since 1873, congressional debates have been published in the Congressional Record, which appears first on a daily basis, then is recompiled into annual bound volumes (different pagination between daily and bound).

Appropriate citation forms are:

Daily edition: 128 Cong. Rec. S15,657 (daily ed. Dec. 20, 1982)(statement of Sen. Thurmond)

Bound edition: 125 Cong. Rec. 14,981 (1979)

GSU Law Holdings
Congressional Record is available on microfiche from 1873 - date. There is both the daily edition and the bound edition of the Congressional Record. The pagination differs from the two editions. The current year and previous year are also in paper. The Law Library has a fairly complete collection of the Congressional Record Index in paper.

Online
The full text of the Congressional Record is on WESTLAW in the CR database and on LEXIS in the GENFED Library (1985-date). On the Internet, search http://access.gpo.gov/ and http://thomas.loc.gov/. If you are using a computer in the College of Law, you can access CIS Congressional Universe at http//www.law.gsu.edu/library/Lib/web_subscriptions.htm for debates from the 99th Congress.

COMPILING A LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

To compile a complete legislative history for a federal law, it is necessary to locate the documents related to both the creating act and later amendments. To begin the process, it is important to find and note as much as possible of the following descriptive information for each act: its Public Law (or chapter) Number, its location in the U.S. Statutes at Large, the date of enactment, the number of the House or Senate bill which was enacted.

The Public Law Number and Statutes at Large citation are easily found with the text of the codified language in the official U.S. Code (KF62), or the two commercial editions, U.S. Code Annotated (KF62) and U.S. Code Service (KF62).

The bill number for a law enacted since 1903 can be found with its text in the appropriate volume of the Statutes at Large (KF50) or in the advance sheets and the bound volumes of the U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News (KF48). Bill numbers can also be found through the indexes and tables of the Congressional Record and its predecessors.

LOCATING COMPILED LEGISLATIVE HISTORIES

Considerable research time can be saved if a legislative history has already been compiled. Available compilations are listed by Congress and by the Public Law citation in N.Johnson, Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories (Ref KF42.2). Many items listed provide the actual texts of documents; some are journal articles or other sources that provide only citations to relevant documents. There are a few compiled legislative histories available in microfiche: CCH's Public Laws - Legislative Histories on Microfiche (1981-88) and the Information Handling Service (IHS) Legislative Histories Microfiche Service, a more selective source of compilations.

U.S.Code Congressional and Administrative News, 1941- (KF48) is a good source of compiled legislative histories, although it includes only selective reports. USCCAN is issued in monthly pamphlets during each session of Congress and is reissued in bound volumes. In addition to printing the full text of the statute, it provides a section of legislative history material. For most laws, it reprints a House or Senate Report and the Conference Report.

COMPILING A LEGISLATIVE HISTORY FOR A POST-1970 LAW

For laws enacted since 1970, legislative history research is simplified by the Congressional Information Service (CIS)(Ref. KF49.C626). The CIS/Index is issued monthly and cumulates into a permanent edition titled CIS/Annual. The CIS/Annual contains a legislative history of each Public Law enacted during the year covered by that annual. A CIS compiled legislative history contains references to abstracts of each hearing, report, and committee print, and provides citations to the Congressional Record and Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. From 1970 to 1983 these compiled histories appear at the end of the Abstracts volume in a section called "Legislative History Citations." Starting in 1984, there is a separate volume, Legislative Histories of Public Laws, that provides detailed legislative histories. If you are using a computer in the College of Law, you can access the web version of the CIS Index, called the CIS Congressional Universe at http//www.law.gsu.edu/ library/Lib/web_subscriptions.htm.

The CCH Congressional Index (Ref KF49.C6) is a weekly looseleaf guide to current legislation which provides access to House and Senate bills by subject and sponsor, and is the best source for up-to-date information on current bills. It lists action taken on a bill as well as report numbers and hearings (but does not include the bibliographic information needed to find the hearing in the library), and gives the public law number, if the bill was passed into law.

COMPILING A LEGISLATIVE HISTORY FOR A PRE-1970 LAW

The CIS U.S. Serial Set Index (Ref KF49.C648) indexes reports by subject indicating the Congress, session, and the Serial Set volume number where reports are bound. If the type of report and the Congress and session are already known, the "Finding Lists" volume is faster to use.

The CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Prints Index (Ref KF49.C644) includes citations to committee prints from the earliest publications through 1969. Each print is indexed by subject, name, bill number, congress and committees, and title.

The CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index (Ref KF49.C644) indexes hearings by subject, name, title and bill number.

The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications (Z1223.A18), 1895-date (Law Library has 1912-date) is the standard index for hearings and reports prior to the CIS/Index.