Legislative History Research

This exercise will introduce students to the federal legislative process and the various congressional documents in a legislative history. Students will be introduced to free legislative databases on the Internet. Through various cases, students will see how the courts use congressional documents to interpret laws.

Compiled legislative histories are collections of the documents that make up the legislative history of a law. They save researchers the time and frustration of collecting the documents themselves. This lesson introduces students to print and online sources of compiled legislative histories and time saving strategies for finding them. This lesson builds upon the CALI Lesson Researching Federal Legislative History. While it is not essential to complete that lesson first, doing so will improve your understanding of compiled legislative histories.