If you can find a compiled legislative history, it will save you the effort of compiling the documents yourself. Below are sources of compiled legislative histories.
HeinOnline: U.S. Federal Legislative History Library (1870- )
Pence Law Library Catalog: Compiled legislative histories that are stand-alone publications are cataloged in Encore or the library catalogs.
Find bibliographic records to complete federal legislative histories in the library’s print collection or links to electronic resource materials.
Search Tip: "legislative history" and [key term, such as the popular name of the law; e.g. 'Dodd Frank']
Westlaw has several collections of compiled federal legislative histories:
U.S. GAO Federal Legislative Histories
Comprehensive legislative histories for most U.S. Public Laws enacted from 1921 to 1995, and PL 104-191, as compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, including the text of laws, bills, committee reports, Congressional Record documents, transcripts of hearings, and other documents in pdf format.
Arnold & Porter Collection - Legislative Histories
Selected comprehensive legislative histories for 16 public laws: text of public law, reports, hearings, bills, related bills, debate, GAO reports, Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports, and miscellaneous (Presidential signing statement, table of content)
U.S. Code Congressional & Administrative News
Includes Legislative History Reports (documents from U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News) and Legislative History Table (listing of Public law number, U.S. Statutes at Large page, Bill no., House and Senate report nos., and dates of passage). Coverage varies by document type.
Legislative History - United States Code
Legislative histories of public laws as reprinted in U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN) from 1948 through 1989 as well as the legislative history of securities laws beginning with 1933. Also includes all congressional committee reports, including reports on bills that did not become law, beginning with 1990.
Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC) : Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ): Legislative Histories
Selected legislative histories comprising the most important components for the law documented in each legislative history which may include some, or all, of the following: the U.S. Public Law; House and Senate Documents; House, Senate, and Conference Reports; House and Senate Committee Hearings; Congressional Debates (Congressional Record); related Bills; and Presidential Signing Statements.
Refine by Congress and Legislation Type (select 'Laws (Public/Private)')
| Legislation - Metadata | 93rd Congress (1973) | |
| Legislation - Full Text | 103rd Congress (1993) |
Indexes.
FDsys: History of Bills in the Congressional Record Index (1983- )
HeinOnline History of Bills n the Congressional Record Index (1873-) [Expand volume to locate History of Bills.]
Each volume of the Congressional Record Index contains a 'History of Bills and Resolutions' section which includes citations to relevant floor debate (beginning page numbers, but no dates), as well as congressional reports and documents.
Note: To search the History of Bills in the Congressional Record Index, you need to know the bill number. Otherwise, use the index to find the bill number (by subject, keyword, or bill sponsor).
Available in Pence Law Library
CIS Annual Legislative Histories of U.S. Public Laws. Print resource located in Reserve Collection, KF49.C62.
Contains legislative histories for all public laws (except those dealing with cermonies or housekeeping matters) - abstract of the public law and full bibloigraphic citations for all relevant documents from the current and prior congresses: committee reports, Congressionsal Record floor debates, committee hearings/rpints, House and Seanate documents, and daily compilation of presidential documents.
CCH Congressional Index for House of Representatives and Congressional Index for Senate. Print resource located in Reserve Collection, KF49.C6.
Provides separate sections on Bills and Resolutions (information on sponsors and purpose of bill) and another section on Status of Bills showing what became of pubcil bills and resolutions from the time committee hearings are held, through the various stages of consideration in both houses, to final enactment or rejection.
From 1970 - 1983, the annual CIS Annual contains two types of volumes: Index and Abstracts. At the back of each Abstracts volume, there is a condensed 'Legislative History' section which lists congressional documents by public law number.
From 1984 forward, the CIS Annual includes three types of volumes: Index, Abstracts and a separate Legislative Histories volume.