LibGuides: Legislative History Research: Pennsylvania Legislative Histories

Pennsylvania Legislative History: A Quick Guide

The steps for completing a legislative history in Pennsylvania prior to 1975 legislation is generally:

Identify the Act Number.
- A citation with an Act number is typically found immediately after each section in Purdon's.
Identify the Bill Number.
- For laws passed in 1965, going forward, the bill number is printed on the first page of each Act in the Laws of Pennsylvania. Before 1965, a bill number can be found in the bill index pages of the House and Senate Histories.
Use Bill Number to locate bill history.
- Consult the House or Senate histories for the year of your legislation to find a sequential listing of the history for your act and look for a page reference to the House or Senate Journal.
Locate Remarks in House or Senate Journal.
- Consult the House or Senate Journal for the year of your legislation and find the page referenced.
- Bill histories from 1975 forward are available online at the Pennsylvania General Assembly website by locating an enacted bill and clicking on the "history" link.

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
The PA-LH database contains legislative history documents related to laws passed by the Pennsylvania General Assembly. PA-LH is a multibase that combines the PA-LH-REP, PA-LH-JRNLS and PA-LH-MSG databases. PA-LH-REP contains bill histories, PA-LH-JRNLS contains legislative journals, and PA-LH-MSG contains messages from the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Lexis This link opens in a new window
LexisNexis Pennsylvania Legislative Bill History Materials: Each document provides helpful insight into the legislative history of a particular Bill, Resolution, Ballot Measure, Executive Order, Amendment, or other legislation. A document may be any of the following types: Bill Analyses, Bill Summaries, Fiscal Notes, Governor's Messages, and Committee Messages.