A legislative history is a compilation of documents produced at each stage of the legislative (congressional) process.
Legislative history documents may be used:
To aid a court in its interpretation of statutes, but only if:
OR
to track a pending bill as it moves through Congress.
Your legislative research will be much easier if you locate as much as possible of the following information for each act:
Your online searching will be more precise if you use them; you will retrieve less irrelevant material.
Step One
Find the public law number or citation to its publication in the U.S. Statutes at Large (Pub.L. 107-147, 116 Stat.21).
Find from
U.S. Code Section, statutory history (in parentheses below section text) or
U.S. Code, Popular Names table; or
Title search of the act (public law) in the databases listed below
Step Two
Find the bill number and Congress (H.R.3090 or S.211 from the 107th Congress
Find From:
Public Law in the databases listed below
To obtain the access code for these lessons, visit http://www.cali.org/user/register and enter access code "AMERICstu4"