Emory Law School Website

Legislative history websites can be used for finding congressional intent behind legislation or for tracking bills in the current congressional term. Public Laws (uncodified statutes), bills, committee reports, floor debate, and some committee hearings are all available on the web for recent terms of Congress.

1. Public Laws
   NARA
   Uncodified slip laws, from 1995.
   Search or browse the Catalog of Public Laws by number.  
   Text and PDF laws.
   
   
2. Public Laws
   Thomas
   Browse by PL or bill number. Summaries from 1973, full-text from 1989.  HTML or link to PDF on GPO Access. Includes bill summary and status, sponsors, and committee.
   
   
3. Statutes at large 1789-1873. 
   Library of Congress American Memory Collection
   Image format (GIF or TIFF) pages from Statutes at large, 1^st through 42^nd Congresses. Browse by volume or Congress. Also bills and resolutions, U.S. Serial Set, and Journals and Debates of Congress.

Legislative history

1. Govtrack
   An independent site that uses data from THOMAS to provide bill tracking and legislative information. Search for bills, or browse by subject, committee, or the US Code title and section to be amended. Set up trackers for e-mail alerts on bills or subject areas. Govtrack also includes the Congressional Record with links to bills discussed.
   
   
2. Congressional bills
   GPO Access
   Search or use the Catalog of Congressional Bills to retrieve by bill number. From 1993 to current. PDF and text.
   
   
3. Congressional bills
   Thomas
   Bill summaries and status from 1973 to the present. Bill text from 1989. Search by keyword, number, dates, state in the legislative process, sponsor, or committee, or browse through lists of bill and Public Law numbers.
   
   
4. Congressional Record (floor debates)
   GPO Access
   Browse the Daily Digest, search by keyword or retrieve by date or page number. In text and PDF, from 1994.
   For narrower results, search in the Congressional Record Index.
   
   
5. Congressional Record
   Thomas
   Retrieve the most recent issue, or search the full-text or the index. From 1989. Also Roll Call votes, and links to House and Senate schedules.
   
   
6. Committee Reports
   GPO Access
   From 1995, in text and PDF. GPO Access also has Executive Reports and Treaty Documents, and selected hearings, in text and PDF.
   
   Thomas
   Searchable by keyword, committee, or bill or report number, from 1995. Also links to committee home pages for finding hearings.
   
   
7. Law Library of Congress Compilations
   Compiled Public Laws and legislative histories published as committee prints.