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Bills
An introduced bill is the first step in
the legislative process. After introduction it is numbered and referred
to a committee that has jurisdiction over the subject matter. A bill’s
number is unique and is the principal way it is tracked in Congress as
it was introduced. At each step in the legislative process, a new
version of the bill may be printed and available online. Bills are
available online at the THOMAS Library of Congress site beginning with the 101st Congress (1989), in LexisNexis Congressional (1989 forward) and on the FDSys Congressional Bills site beginning with the 103rd Congress (1993). For a detailed explanation of the federal legislative process, see How Our Laws Are Made from the Library of Congress.
Lauinger Library has selected historical bills on microform from 1979-2000: Senate bills (Y 1.4/1) and House bills (Y 1.4/6).
Hearings
Hearings on proposed legislation are an opportunity for interested parties to present their views; they are valuable because they provide background information on the issue under consideration. The Government Documents collection on the 1st floor of Lauinger Library has thousands of hearings in print; full-text access is available through GEORGE for newer hearings (generally from the 1990's forward; include 'hearing' as a keyword in your search). Other sources for electronic access to hearings are FDsys (1995-present), LexisNexis Congressional (historical coverage, 19th century forward), the Congressional Hearings page from GPO, and by committee through the Senate and House websites.
Laws & Statutes
Once an enrolled bill is signed into law
by the president, the original enrolled bill is sent from the White
House to the Archivist of the United States for publication. It is
assigned a public law number and is issued in print as a "slip law." In
addition to the law number, the Office of the Federal Register assigns
the legal statutory citation of each law and prepares marginal notes,
citations, and the legislative history (a brief description of the
Congressional action taken on each public bill), which also contains
dates of related presidential remarks or statements). OFR publishes the
slip laws through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Therefore,
there is a delay from the signed enrolled bill and the availability of
the public law. Until then, you can read the full text of the law using
the enrolled version of that bill. The text of the enrolled bill will be
identical to the public law.
At the end of each session of Congress, the slip laws are compiled into
bound volumes called the Statutes at Large, and they are known as
"session laws." The Statutes at Large present a chronological
arrangement of the laws in the exact order in which they have been
enacted.
Every six years, public laws are incorporated into the United States
Code, which is a codification of all general and permanent laws of the
United States. A supplement to the United States Code is published
during each interim year until the next comprehensive volume is
published. The U.S. Code is arranged by subject matter, and it shows the
present status of laws with amendments already incorporated in the text
that have been amended on one or more occasions. Find Public and
Private Laws at the FDSys site beginning with the 104th Congress (1995) or search the Statutes at Large by Public Law number in HeinOnline from 1789 through 2005. Hein also includes the U.S. Code, 1925 through 2006.
Reports
A committee report usually accompanies a bill as it proceeds to the full chamber for debate and voting. In it will be the text of the bill, discussion, minority views and votes in committee. Nearly all enacted laws will have a report by the House and/or Senate committee(s) that studied the bill. A conference report, issued by a specially appointed conference committee of the House and Senate, is of particular value because it explains the compromise language of the final version of the bill. Conference reports are common for budget and tax bills. See the entry for the Congressional Serial Set for access to congressional reports.
Presidential Signing Statements
Upon signing a bill into law, the president will often make statements as to why he or she is doing so. Researchers may find them useful for the Administration’s perspective. To find more information on presidential documents, see the Presidential Documents subject guide Presidential Documents. Current and historical presidential documents can also be found in the HeinOnline U.S. Presidential Library collection.
