DOJ Legislative Histories

A collection of federal legislative histories created by U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) library staff over the years, and previously available only to DOJ staff members, is now digitized and available to everyone here on the DOJ web site. Included are some well-known laws, such as the Captive Wildlife Safety Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, as well as some major criminal statutes. These legislative histories are easy to use and provide links to full-text PDF documents such as related bills, Congressional hearings and reports, debates, Presidential signing statements, and additional materials.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New on HeinOnline: Congressional Hearings

HeinOnline has just announced the addition of more than 3,000 Congressional Hearings to its U.S. Congressional Documents Collection.  The documents, from law firm Covington & Burling's prestigious collection of Government Printing Office hearings, span the period from 1927 (71st Congress) through 1994 (103rd Congress).  This collection provides easy access to many important hearings in searchable image-based PDF format, with the familiarity of HeinOnline navigation and features, and a Congressional Hearings Quick Finder.  HeinOnline will add more hearings monthly, and plans to eventually bring the collection up to the present date. To access the Congressional Hearings collection on HeinOnline, select "U.S. Congressional Documents Library" on the HeinOnline Resources page of the Law Library web site, and then select "Congressional Hearings" under the browse options. 

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Congress- past and present

For a virtual library cat, I can be kind of geeky. I LOVE prowling the web for legislative history. My all-time favorite site for legislative history research - LexisNexis Congressional - has recently been bought and undergone a name change. It is now know as "ProQuest Congressional".

You will still find it listed as "LexisNexis Congressional" under Federal Information-Legislative in the Library's Online Resources listing. We will soon be adding the new name "ProQuest Congressional."

For those tracking the latest developments in legislation on the budget, remember OpenCongress and GovTrack . Although, for the latest news developments on the possible Federal Government shutdown, nothing beats your favorite major news site, like the New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

NY State Newspapers Database

For law students trying to find background and public opinion for New York legislation and legislative history, this database is a find. New York State Newspapers contains more than 2 million articles from over 40 newspapers representing regions and communities throughout the state. Spanning a wide range of geography and perspective from the New York Post and Albany Times Union to the Buffalo News and Cornell Daily Sun, this fully browseable and searchable resource includes material from 1980 to the present, along with publication facts for each newspaper.

To access New York State Newspapers, select "Axinn Research Databases by Subject" from the Law Library's alphabetical list of Online Resources. After logging into the Hofstra portal, select "Newspapers," and locate New York State Newspapers in the newspaper database list.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Dodd-Frank Legislative History on HeinOnline

A legislative history of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in July 2010, is now available in the Taxation and Economic Reform in America library on HeinOnline. This compilation includes more than 140 legislative and executive documents in PDF, arranged in nine parts: The Law; Reports on the Law; Bill Versions; Related Bills; Presidential Materials; Congressional Record materials; Related Reports; Related Hearings; and Congressional Budget Office Reports. With new regulations and federal agencies coming into being as Dodd-Frank is implemented, this legislative history will be an invaluable resource for student and faculty research, law journal source gathering, and legal practice. For help in using this or other HeinOnline legislative histories, ask a reference librarian.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Bill Jackets Online

An update to this post from two years ago: bill jackets through 2008 are now available online. (Bill jackets contain the most important legislative history documents for New York statutes.)

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Dodd-Frank Legislative History Webpage

Two years ago we mentioned that the Legislative Sourcebook on the website of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. is a great source of compiled legislative histories (where someone has already compiled the legislative history documents, or at least a list of them, so that you don't have to). As part of the Sourcebook, the recently added an easy-to-use webpage for the legislative history of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act, with links to all of the relevant documents.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Bill Jackets in the News

There has been a lot of controversy recently related to bill jackets in the New York State Senate.

Bill jackets are, not surprisingly, jackets--or folders--for bills. As Bill Manz writes in Gibson's New York Legal Research Guide, "Engrossing a bill involves affixing to it the certifications of passage from each house and enclosing the bill in a folder known as a 'bill jacket.' The house of origin transmits the engrossed bill to the governor's office."

Related to the turmoil in the New York State Senate, that body's bill jackets are being kept under lock and key by the Secretary of the Senate, which probably prevents any bills passed by the Senate from really being official. And two Republican Senators are suing to compel the Secretary to release the bill jackets.

Anyone who has made an appellate argument in New York knows that, in addition to keeping bills warm and giving them an imprimatur of 'officialness,' bill jackets are also the main source of legislative history for New York State laws. Some bill jackets from the last decade are available for free on the State Archives website. Others can be a little harder to find.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Legislative Histories Online

Finding compiled legislative histories for federal laws can be a challenge, even though many are now available to law students on commercial databases like Lexis, Westlaw, and HeinOnline, and some are on free web sites of U.S. government agencies, libraries, and other organizations. A great place to begin is with "Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws on the Internet," part of the Legislative Source Book created by the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. The non-commercial legislative history sources are listed first, with links to the public law and the web site of the legislative history. The commercial database listing is also arranged alphabetically by popular name of the law, and then by public law number, with links to the database home page. You will need to log on or access that database to locate the specific legislative history. For help with finding a compiled legislative history, just ask at the Law Library Reference Desk.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

New York Legislative History

The New York State Archives has put Bill Jackets for 2005 and 2006 online. (Those who have dealt with New York legislative history probably remember that bill jackets are about all the legislative history that exists for New York laws.) We can expect more years to follow.

Update: 2002-4 are also available here, but you must search for them individually.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

MetaVid

MetaVid is a relatively new site that archives videos of federal legislative action. Its contents are only from about the last two years, and because it relies largely on user uploads, it does not contain videos of everything that happens in Congress. But because MetaVid gives you the ability to find information on and videos related to a bill simply by entering its name, number, or a legislator's name (among other search options), it may become a valuable resource and it is already a good option for anyone researching recent legislation.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Hein's Compiled Legislative Histories

People often try to compile federal legislative histories from scratch, but legislative histories of many important laws have already been professionally compiled and published. One good source for these is HeinOnline. Last week, Hein's blog offered a how-to for using its compiled legislative histories.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat