U.S. Federal Legislative History Library

Last September, we published a blog post exploring the ins and outs of the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark bill signed by President Biden on August 16, 2022. While it was a far cry from Biden’s original legislation, called the Build Back Better plan, due to negotiations demanded by Republicans and moderate Democrats, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is still a significant piece of legislation that invests in combatting climate change, reducing pharmaceutical prices, taxing corporations, and more.

HeinOnline’s U.S. Federal Legislative History Library is the richest collection of compiled federal legislative histories to exist. With this database, you can research legislative intent behind major public laws and follow the progression of a bill from its introduction to its passage. This valuable database also provides insight and clarification into ambiguous statutory language.

Committee reports are considered to be one of the most important documents of legislative history research. These reports are produced by the House and Senate committees that address legislative and other policy issues, investigations, and internal committee matters. Each report can be identified by standardized citation that includes the Congress, chamber (House or Senate), and report number.

Have you ever tried to locate the text of a public law or an Act, but didn’t have a U.S. Statutes at Large citation or a public law number handy? This week’s tip will showcase how to utilize three different sources in HeinOnline to locate the text of a public law using its popular name.

It has been four years since a new edition was published for this essential tool used for legislative history research! Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books, 1st Congress–114th Congress, Fourth Edition was compiled by new editors and includes more than 3,300 laws and nearly 7,800 bibliographic records! This book is easy to use and is perfect for librarians, attorneys, government employees, students, and researchers.

HeinOnline’s U.S. Federal Legislative History Library includes comprehensive federal legislative histories published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office as well as private publishers. Users can research legislative intent behind major public laws and follow the progression of a bill from its introduction to its passage. We recently added two new legislative histories to this database, and we want to make sure you didn’t miss them!