Skip to Main Content
site header image

Cost-Effective Legal Research: Free Sources for Legislative History

Several types of legislative history documents are available for free online, although most only contain the most recent Congresses. 

Congressional Bills

  • American Memory - The Library of Congress provides access to House bills from 1799-1873 (6th - 42nd Congresses) with the exception of the 12th Congress and Senate Bills from 1819-1873 (16th - 42nd Congresses). Browsable by Congressional session and type of legislation. Searchable by keyword.
  • GovInfo - Contains all published versions of bills from the 103rd (1993-1994) Congress forward. Browsable by Congressional session and type of legislation. Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text). 
  • Congress.gov - The Library of Congress provides bills from 101st Congress from 1989 to the present. Searchable by bill number or keyword (full text).

Congressional Hearings

  • GovInfo - Provides access to copies of select hearings from 1995 to the present. Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword (full text). To search the full text of hearings, use the advanced search interface.
  • Rutgers School of Law - Contains selected hearings from 1970s to 1999. Additional hearings and documents harvested from the GPO websites from 2000 forward are also included as well.

Congressional Committee Reports

  • American Memory - Provided by the Library of Congress contains selected documents and reports of the U.S. Serial Set. Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword.
  • GovInfo - Congressional Committee Prints are publications issued by Congressional Committees that include topics related to their legislative or research activities and other matters such as memorial tributes. Browsable by Congressional session and searchable by keyword.
  • Congress.gov - Contains Committee Reports from 1995 to the present. Browsable and searchable by report number and keyword.

Congressional Debates

State Legislative History

Most states allow access to the full text of bills from the current legislative session and you can often search back several years.  However, other materials such as hearings, debates, and reports are often more difficult to locate. To locate it either in print or online, you need to check each individual state’s availability. 

U.S. State Legislative Resources

Ohio

 

Other Resources

chat loading...

Reference Appointments

The Taggart Law Library is here to help! Schedule an appointment with a librarian or chat with us using our online chat feature. Open to ONU Law students, faculty, staff, and alumni.