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PAD 5005: Policy Process and Democracy: Federal Legislation

Introduction to Tracking Federal Legislation

Many federal legislative documents are available freely online. A federal legislative history typically includes the following documents:

  • Bill (full-text of all versions of the bills)
  • Transcripts of committee hearings
  • Committee reports
  • Transcripts of Congressional debates
  • Public law (if bill signed into law)

Tracking Legislation

Tracking legislative histories before 1995 can be difficult as the full-text of bills is not available freely online. Instead, you'll have to search several print sources and compile the documents by hand. To make this process easier, here are documents to look for and the sources you need to use to find them:

Text of Bills - Any bill introduced in the Congress is recorded in the Congressional Record, which is the transcripts of Congress' proceedings.

Committee Reports - Found in the United States Congressional Serial Set.

Congressional Debates - Found in the Congressional Record.

Conference Committee Reports - Found in the United States Congressional Serial Set.

Public Laws - Found in the United States Code. Most public laws contain a section on legislative history that helps identify other documents to locate.

Understanding Citations at the Federal Level

U.S. Code (Current and federal laws arranged by subject)

  • Sample citation: 20 U.S.C. 1070a (Title 20, section 1070a)

U.S. Statutes at Large (All the laws passed by Congress and signed by the President arranged chronologically)

  • Sample citation: P.L. 89-329 (the 329th Public Law passed by the 89th Congress)
    or:
    79 STAT 1219 (Vol. 79, page 1219 of the U.S. Statutes at Large)

Congressional Record (Official record of daily debates and proceedings published by the Government Printing Office)

  • Sample citation: TBD (TBD)

Congressional Hearings (Formal meeting or session of a congressional group to obtain information and opinions on proposed legislation or the implementation of a Federal law)

  • Sample citation: TBD (TBD)

Code of Federal Regulations (Administrative rules passed by federal agencies)

  • Sample citation: 34 CFR 690 (Title 34, chapter 690)
  • Regulations.gov (www.regulations.gov)

Federal Register (New and amended regulations appear here first)

  • Sample citation: 50 FR 10717 (Volume 50, page 10717)

Researching Federal Statutes

Locating Print Resources