Research Guide - Compiling a Federal Legislative History

The Federal legislative process is well-documented, and it may be useful to your research to find legislative history documents explaining why a particular bill was introduced or law was passed. If you are fortunate, you may find that someone has already compiled a legislative history on the law you are researching. See the section below on finding a previously compiled legislative history.

You will find that many collections of legislative history documents are organized by public law number, so your first step should be to locate the relevant public law number. There is a detailed explanation of how to find public law numbers in the section below.

This guide includes information about:

• How to Find a Public Law Number
• How to Locate a Previously Compiled Legislative History
• How to Find the Citations for the Legislative Documents You Need
• How to Locate the Relevant Legislative Documents Once You've Found the Citations:

Committee Reports Committee Prints/House & Senate Documents

Bills and Amendments Congressional Record

Committee Hearings Presidential Documents

• A Brief Word About Statutory Construction

How to Find a Public Law Number

Legislative history compilations and the documents themselves are often organized by public law number, bill number, or title of the act.

	A first step is to locate the public law number. The first public law to pass a Congress is designated number 1. Pub. L. No. 105-1 would be the first bill introduced in the 105th Congress. Each subsequent public law is numbered sequentially throughout the two-year term of a Congress.
	- There are numerous ways to find public law numbers. One easy way is to look at the legislative history notes which follow the text of an Act in an annotated code such as US Code Annotated (USCA) (4th Floor Stacks and 4th Floor Reading Room) or US Code Service (USCS)( 4th Floor Stacks. The notes in these codes should contain the date of passage, the public law number, and the Statutes at Large citation. The Statutes at Large are in the 4th Floor Stacks and on Hein-on-Line. Just click on the U.S. Statutes at Large link on the left.
	- If you only know the subject of an act, use the subject indexes in USCA or USCS to find the public law number.
	- If you know the name of an act, use the popular names tables in USCA or USCS or the Shepard's Acts and Cases by Popular Name volumes (KF80.S5) to find the public law number. These Shepard's volumes are at the Reference Desk.
	- If you need to find the bill number to use one of these compilations, and you know the public law number, you can find the bill number in the Statutes at Large. To obtain the bill numbers for early Congresses (1st to 57th, 1789 - 1903), consult the Legislative Reference Checklist [KF49 L43 1982] available at the Reference Desk and on Hein-on-Line. Just click on the U.S. Federal Legislative History link on the left, and then the Legislative Reference Checklist in the "Browse" column on the left.

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How to Locate A Compiled Legislative History

The best way to start federal legislative history research is to determine whether someone else has already compiled and published a legislative history. The sources below may guide you to publications that include full text documents, or to a list of all available documents about the law. To locate a compiled legislative history, check the following sources:

PRINT RESOURCES

	To quickly locate the most important history documents for legislative acts from 1943 through the current Congress, you can find the law and selected history documents in US Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN), located in the 4th Floor Stacks.
	Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories, by Nancy P. Johnson [KF42.2.J55 - Reference Desk] Also available through Hein-on-Line, with links to selected full-text documents. From the home page, click on U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, then click on Sources of Compiled Legislative History Database
	Federal Legislative Histories: An Annotated Bibliography and Index to Officially Published Sources, by Bernard Reams [KF42.2 R42 1994 - Reference Desk & 5th Floor Stacks]
	Legislative Histories Indexed Guide, published by Information Handling Services [KF42.22 1977 - Reference Desk]
	CIS Annual Legislative Histories, 1970 - present. [KF49 .C62 - Micrographics Room] This print index includes complete legislative histories with references to the full-text documents available in the Library's CIS microfiche collection. Please see a Reference Librarian regarding use of the index. From the 91st to 98th Congresses (1970 - 1983) legislative histories are found at the end of the Abstracts volume. Beginning in 1984, an Annual Legislative History volume lists histories by public law number. Each history contains an abstract of the public law and full bibliographic citations to relevant documents.
	The Hastings Library also has legislative histories in print and on microfiche. Use the Hastings Online Library Catalog at http://hopac.uchastings.edu/search. [Hint: Use the "keywords" search option to search for keywords from the title of the act (example: searching "american disabilities legislative" will bring up the call number for a book containing the full text of all the legislative history documents relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act.)]

ONLINE RESOURCES

	Lexis has CIS Legislative Histories from 1970 through current (abstracted documents only) in the file LEGIS;CISLH. Selectively compiled legislative histories are also available and can be found by browsing the online directory in "Federal Legal - US" and then clicking on "Legislative Histories & Materials."
	Westlaw now has access to legislative history materials in a number of formats. You can search their federal legislative history database, FED-LH. If you are looking at a statute, there is now a link on the left to related hearings and reports. Westlaw also offers the Arnold & Porter Collection of legislative histories. These can be located by browsing the online directory in "US Federal Materials" and then clicking on "Arnold & Porter Collection - Legislative Histories."
	LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) offers compiled legislative histories for all federal acts since the 91st Congress (1969-1970), with links to the full-text of many of the legislative documents. This service also offers indexing for pre-1970 legislative documents.
	HeinOnLine (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) has selected legislative histories available in a full-text, fully searchable format. Click on the U.S. Federal Legislative History Library.
	The Department of Commerce Law Library has a limited number of legislative histories available online, from the Antidumping Law of 1921 to the 1976 Copyright Act Revisions. For a full listing of the histories, and links to the on-line documents, go to the Law Librarian's Society of Washington D.C.'s listing of histories, by popular name and by public law number. You will be prompted to enter a PIN number, and may choose any number you want to use.
	US Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN) is also available on Westlaw (database: LH). From 1948-1989, the database is the same as the print version of USCCAN. From 1990, the database contains the full text of all congressional committee reports, including reports on bills that did not become law.

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How To Determine the Citations to the Legislative Documents You Need

Once you know the public law number, the bill number, and/or the title of the act, you can start looking for legislative history documents: Reports, Bills, Hearings, Committee Prints, the Congressional Record, and Presidential Documents. You need to get citations to the individual documents that exist for the law you are interested in, so you will need to use specialized finding aids and indexes. Once you have citations, the remainder of the Guide will let you know where the document you want can be found, online, in print, or in microform.

INDEXES ONLINE

LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) - This subscription Internet database indexes the American State Papers and the 15th to current Congresses (1789 to current). Use the "Advanced Search" tab, which allows you to limit your search to the type of document you want, the subject, and, if known, the date or Congress. This index will help you find citations to reports, hearings, committee prints, and House and Senate documents, as well as the Congressional Record (1985 - current) and bills (1969 - current).

INDEXES IN PRINT

The following indexes are all located in the Micrographics Room.

Indexes for Finding Congressional Reports:

-Reports before 1970 are indexed in the CIS Serial Set Index, located in the Library's Micrographics Room. The reports are indexed by subject and keyword, and each entry contains a brief description of the report. This index provides both the report number from the Serial Set and the CIS number, to help you find the full-text of each report.

-Reports after 1970 are indexed in the CIS Annual Index by subject, title, and bill number. If you have the public law number, the easiest way to locate a report is to check the legislative history section at the end of the CIS Annual Abstracts volume or the CIS Annual Legislative Histories volume.

-Once you have found a report that might be informative, you should read the summary of the report in the Abstracts volume.

Indexes for Finding Hearings:

- Hearings after 1970 are indexed in the CIS Annual Index by subject, title, and bill number. If you have the public law number, the easiest way to locate a hearing is to check the legislative history section at the end of the CIS Annual Abstracts volume or the CIS Annual Legislative Histories volume.

- Once you have found a hearing that might be informative, you should read the summary of the hearing in the Abstracts volume. This summary will confirm that you have the correct hearing and provide valuable information about the witnesses testifying and the content of the hearing.

- Hearings from 1833-1969 (23rd to 91st Congress) are indexed in the CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index. These hearings are indexed by subject, name, organization, and bill number.

- Abstracts for each hearing are listed in the "Reference Bibliography" section. These abstracts include a detailed description of the hearing and a CIS number, which is needed to locate the full-text of the hearing in the Library's microfiche collection.

-Unpublished House Hearings from 1833-1964 are listed in the CIS Index to Unpublished US House of Representatives Committee Hearings. These hearings are indexed by subject, name, organization, and bill number. Abstracts for each hearing include a detailed description of the hearing and the CIS number needed to locate the full-text of the hearing in the Library's microfiche collection.

-Unpublished Senate Hearings from 1823-1976 are indexed in the CIS Index to Unpublished US Senate Committee Hearings. These hearings are indexed by subject, name, organization, and bill number. Abstracts for each hearing include a detailed description of the hearing and the CIS number needed to locate the full-text of the hearing in the Library's microfiche collection.

Indexes for Finding Committee Prints:

-Committee Prints from 1830 to 1969 ( 21st to 91st Congress) are indexed in the CIS Congressional Committee Prints Index,(1830 - 1969). Committee prints are indexed by subject and keyword.

-Committee Prints from 1979 to current (91st Congress to current) are indexed in the CIS Annual Index. Committee Prints are indexed by subject, title, and bill number. If you have the public law number, the easiest way to locate a committee print is to check the legislative history section at the end of the CIS Annual Abstracts volume or the CIS Annual Legislative Histories volume.

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How To Locate the Relevant Legislative Documents Once You've Found the Citation:

Committee Reports

Committee reports are usually considered to be the most important documents of a legislative history. Reports are issued by House, Senate, and Joint Conference Committees. They often contain an analysis of the intent of the proposed legislation and the committee's rationale for its recommendations.

The Committee Reports are issued as part of the Serial Set, which contains the sequentially numbered Senate and House Documents and Senate and House Reports for each session of Congress.

COMMITTEE REPORTS AVAILABLE ONLINE

LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) - This subscription Internet database provides full-text of committee reports from 1989 to the present.

Lexis: The Committee Reports file (LEGIS;CMTRPT) contains full-text of House and Senate committee reports from 1990 to present.

Westlaw: From 1948 through 1989, the LH database contains only the Congressional Committee Reports reprinted in the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). From 1990 to date, this database contains all congressional committee reports, including reports on bills that did not become law.

Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov) includes committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.

The Library of Congress's American Memory Project has reports from 1789 to 1838 online as part of the American State Papers, and from 1833 to 1917 has selected reports online as part of the U.S. Serial Set.

GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/search.html - includes committee reports from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.

COMMITTEE REPORTS AVAILABLE IN PRINT

Committee reports are available in paper format from the 27th Congress (1833) to date, as part of the Serial Set, in the 6th Floor Stacks. From 1789 to 1838, reports are part of the American State Papers, J55 - 5th Floor Stacks.

US Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN), located in the 4th Floor Stacks, contains selected full-text House and Senate reports from the 78th Congress (1943) to date. The reports are included in the "Legislative History" volumes. This set also includes partial reprints of some reports and citation information for others.

Hint: If you've looked everywhere, and can't find a report, put the information into Google Book Search. Google Book Search is scanning some Congressional reports.

COMMITTEE REPORTS AVAILABLE ON MICROFICHE

The most complete source of committee reports available in the Library is the CIS microfiche set. House, Senate, and Joint Conference Committee Reports from the 1st Congress forward are available on microfiche as part of this set. They are in Micrographics. To locate reports in this set, you will need the American State Papers or Serial Set citation and/or the CIS number. Please contact a Reference Librarian if you need help.

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Bills & Amendments

The first bill in the House of Representatives in each Congress is identified as H.R. 1, and each subsequent House bill is numbered sequentially. Likewise, the first bill introduced in the Senate is identified as S. 1, and each subsequent Senate bill is numbered sequentially.

If you know the public law number, you can find the bill number in the Statutes at Large. To obtain the bill numbers for early Congresses (1st to 57th, 1789 - 1903), consult the Legislative Reference Checklist [KF49 L43 1982], available at the Reference Desk.

BILLS ONLINE

	Internet Subscription Database -LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) indexes bills from the 1st Congress to the most recent Congress, and provides full-text and status of bills from the 101st Congress (1989) to present.
	Internet - Thomas at http://thomas.loc.gov includes the full-text of bills from the 101st Congress (1989) to present.
	Internet - GPO Access at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legislative.html includes the full-text of bills from the 103rd Congress (1993) to present.
	Lexis - Offers full-text of bills introduced in the House and Senate since the 101st Congress, and tracking of congressional bills for the same time period. From the main Lexis search page, select "Legislation & Politics," select the subcategory "US Congress," then select the subcategory "Full Text of Bills - Historical."
	Westlaw - Offers full-text of bills from the 104th Congress to date in the following databases: CONG-BILLTXT (for the 109th Congress), CONG-BILLTXT108, CONG-BILLTXT107, CONG-BILLTXT106, CONG-BILLTXT105, and CONG-BILLTXT104. Bill Tracking for the current session is available in the database US-BILLTRK and for older bills (from 1991) in BILLTRK-OLD. (Note: BILLTRK-OLD combines federal bills with state bills).
	The Library of Congress hosts databases of House Bills & Resolutions (from the 6th to the 42nd Congress (1799 to 1872)), Senate Bills & Resolutions (from the 16th to 42nd Congress (1819 to 1872)), and Senate Joint Resolutions (from the 18th to the 42nd Congress (1823-1872)).

BILLS ON MICROFICHE

	Federal bills are available on microfiche at Hastings from the 96th Congress (1979) to date. The bills are in Micrographics. See a Reference Librarian if you need help.
	The San Francisco Public Library has bills from the 75th Congress (1937) to date on microfiche, located on the 5th Floor.
	Boalt Hall Law Library has bills for the 1st-24th and 37th-55th Congresses available on microfilm. Green Library at Stanford University has the bills from the 1st to the 72nd Congress (1789-1932) on microfilm, and the 73rd Congress (1933) to date in microfiche.

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Committee Hearings

Hearings are held by standing and special committees of the House and Senate about particular issues of concern or about proposed legislation. In legislative history research, the hearings about proposed legislation are typically the most useful, because they often provide information about the purpose or expected effect of a particular piece of legislation.

It is important to note, that hearings are not held on all proposed legislation and that not all hearings are published. In addition, hearings relevant to a particular piece of legislation may have been held and published during a session of Congress prior to the one in which the law was eventually enacted.

HEARINGS AVAILABLE ONLINE

The resources listed below are the best sites for locating hearings online:

	Westlaw offers selected recent congressional testimony in the databases listed below: - USTESTIMONY contains selected transcripts of oral or written statements from US congressional committee hearings from 1993 - 1995; full coverage begins in 1996. - USPOLTRANS contains transcripts of testimony from selected US congressional committee hearings since 1994. - CONGTMY contains congressional testimony, transcripts, and official documents from the committees of the Congress from 1995 to current, as provided by NewsRoom.
	LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff): This subscription Internet database includes the full-text for only a limited number of recent hearings.
	Lexis offers selected recent hearings in the files listed below: - Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony (LEGIS;CNGTST): includes written statements of witnesses testifying before congressional committees since 1993. - Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Hearings Summaries (LEGIS;HEARNG): contains recent transcripts of congressional hearings, individual written testimony of witnesses and detailed reports of select committee hearings. - FDCH Political Transcripts (LEGIS;POLTRN): contains transcripts of congressional hearings since 1995. - Federal News Service (LEGIS;FEDNEW): includes a few congressional hearings since 1988 that relate to a major news story. - National Narrowcast Network Transcripts (LEGIS;NNNTRN): provides transcripts of select congressional hearings from October 1993 through July 2000.
	GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/chearings/index.html - A limited number of hearings from the 105th Congress (1997) through the most recent Congress are available at GPO Access.
	House Committee Hearings http://commdocs.house.gov/committees - Selected recent house hearings are organized by committee and available at this site.

HEARINGS AVAILABLE IN PRINT

Hearings from the 94th Congress (1975) to current are in the 6th Floor Stacks - U.S. Hearings and Reports. Hearings are organized by:

- Congress (e.g., 108th Congress)
- Chamber (e.g., House)
- Committee (e.g., Committee on Energy & Commerce)
- Title (e.g., "E-Commerce: The Case of Online Wine Sales and Direct Shipment"). The hearings for each committee are organized alphabetically by title.

Note: To find the congress, chamber, committee, and title of a particular hearing, you may need to use the CIS indexes listed above, or LexisNexis Congressional, or theHastings Online Library Catalog at http://hopac.uchastings.edu/search.

Hint: If you've looked everywhere, and can't find a hearing, put the information into Google Book Search. Google Book Search is scanning some Congressional hearings.

HEARINGS AVAILABLE ON MICROFICHE

All of the hearings listed in the CIS indexes mentioned above, are available on microfiche in Micrographics. To locate a hearing, you need the CIS year and the CIS number assigned to each hearing. Please contact a Reference Librarian if you need help.

- House & Senate hearings from 1869-1970 are in cabinets 7-8.
- House & Senate hearings from 1970-current are in cabinets 2-6.
- Unpublished House hearings from 1833-1964 are in cabinet 8.
- Unpublished Senate hearings from 1823-1976 are in cabinet 8.

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Committee Prints / House & Senate Documents

A congressional committee may request a special study in a specific subject area relating to proposed legislation, called a committee print. Committee prints often provide valuable information such as statistical analyses or historical background research.

House and Senate Documents are a diverse group of non-congressional materials ordered printed by Congress. These documents may include annual or special reports to Congress, special studies or background information, and Senate treaty documents.

COMMITTEE PRINTS / HOUSE & SENATE DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE ONLINE

LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff): This database indexes committee prints from the 21st Congress (1830) to the most recent Congress, and provides full-text of committee prints from the 103rd Congress (1993) to the most recent Congress. The database includes abstracts and indexing for House & Senate Documents from 1970 to current, and indexing for House& senate Documents from 1789 to 1969.

Committee Prints file (LEGIS;CMTPRN) provides the full-text of selected committee prints from the 104th Congress (1995) to present. The House & Senate Documents file (LEGIS:HSDOCS) has the full text of documents from the 104th Congress (1995) to current.

GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cprints/index.html - includes committee prints from the 105th Congress (1997) to present and House & Senate Documents form the 104th Congress (1995) to the present.

COMMITTEE PRINTS / HOUSE & SENATE DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE IN PAPER FORMAT AT HASTINGS

Selected committee prints from the 94th Congress (1975) to date are available in the 6th Floor Stacks - U.S. Hearings and Reports. Hearings are organized by:

- Congress (e.g., 108th Congress)
- Chamber (e.g., House)
- Committee (e.g., Committee on Resources)
- Title (e.g., "Compilation of Selected Laws Concerning National Forests"). The Committee prints for each congressional committee are organized alphabetically by title.

Note: To find the congress, chamber, committee, and title of a particular committee print, you may need to use the CIS indexes listed above, or LexisNexis Congressional, or Hastings Online Library Catalog at http://hopac.uchastingsnew.edu/search.

The most complete source of committee prints and House & Senate documents available in the Library is the CIS microfiche set. House Documents, Senate Documents, House, Senate, and Joint Conference Committee Prints are available on microfiche as part of this set. Committee prints from 1970 to current are in the Micrographics Room. To locate documents or committee prints in this set, you will need the CIS number from your research in the indexes.

Hint: If you've looked everywhere, and can't find a committee print put the information into Google Book Search. Google Book Search is scanning some committee prints.

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Congressional Record

The Congressional Record is the primary source for floor debates in Congress. However, it is important to note that this is not a verbatim transcript of congressional debates, because legislators frequently add to, delete from, and revise their statements. The Congressional Record is published daily when either house is in session.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ONLINE

LexisNexis Congressional (access: restricted to Hastings students, faculty, and staff) : This database includes the Congressional Record from the 99th Congress (1985) to the most recent Congress.

Lexis: The Congressional Record file (LEGIS;RECORD) contains the Congressional Record from the 99th Congress (1985) to date.

Westlaw - The Congressional Record is available in the CR database from the 99th Congress (1985) to date.

Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov - includes the Congressional Record from the 101st Congress (1989) to present.

GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html - includes the Congressional Record from the 104th Congress (1995) to present.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD IN PRINT

The print version of the Congressional Record is in the 4th Floor Stacks.

- The Congressional Record is originally published as a softbound daily version, and then repaginated and bound as a hardcover version. There are some differences in the two versions, but probably the most important difference is that the two versions do not use the same system of pagination.

- The "Bound Daily Digest" volumes for the 80th Congress (1947) to date give a history of bills enacted into public law in table form. This table lists the public law number, the bill number, committees to which referred, dates and numbers of committee reports, and the date of passage by each house with a citation to the appropriate pages.

- The "Index" volumes contain a section on the history of bills and resolutions. It is arranged by bill number, and gives report numbers and pages on which the measures were debated.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ON MICROFICHE AND MICROFILM

The Library has the Congressional Record on microfilm from 1878 to 1971 in Micrographics
(cabinet 44), and on microfiche from 1986 to current in the Micrographics Room (cabinet 14).

FINDING CONGRESSIONAL DEBATES PRIOR TO 1873

Prior to the first publication of the Congressional Record in 1873, congressional debates were reported in the Annals of Congress [1st Congress (1789)-18th Congress (1824)], the Register of Debates [18th Congress (1824)-25th Congress (1834)], and the Congressional Globe [23rd Congress (1833)-42nd Congress (1873)].

	The Annals of Congress is available in the Micrographics Room (cabinet 44).
	The Register of Debates is available in the Micrographics Room (cabinet 44).
	The Congressional Globe is available in the Micrographics Room (cabinet 44).
	All three publications are available online at the Library of Congress's American Memory Project at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/.

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Presidential Documents

The most comprehensive source of presidential documents is the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. It has been published since 1965 (Lyndon B. Johnson). For pre-1965 papers of presidents, you may find what you need in a variety of publications. Executive orders and proclamations from 1936 forward are published in:

the Federal Register - is available in print at KF70 .A2 in the 4th Floor Stacks Library.
from 1936-1974, it is available in the Micrographics Room (in cabinet 16); from 1936 through current it is also available from HeinOnLine).
Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations - the current year is available in print at KF70 .A32 in the 4th Floor Stacks; from 1939 through current it is available in the Micrographics Room (in cabinet 16-17).
USCCAN (KF 48 - 4th Floor Stacks)
Title 3 of the United States Code (KF62 .A1 - 4th Floor Stacks).

PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS ONLINE

GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.html - From 1993 to current, this Internet database is now the official place of publication for The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.

The National Archives and Records Administration maintains an Internet site that has the disposition tables for all Executive Orders from 1937 (Franklin D. Roosevelt) to current at
http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/executive_orders/disposition_tables.html

The American Presidency Project is maintained by John Woolley and Gerhard Peters of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Their collection of Executive Orders starts in 1929 with the presidency of Herbert Hoover.

Lexis: The "Public Papers of the Presidents" file contains the full text of the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the annually produced Public Papers of the Presidents (from 1979 to current). Hint: Type "public papers" in the "Find a Source" search box.

Westlaw: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is available in the WCPD database from 1995 to current. Executive orders since 1936, presidential messages since 2000, and signing statements since 1986 are available in USCCAN.

The White House maintains current and archived presidential news and speeches at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.

PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS IN PRINT

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is in the 4th Floor Stacks. From 1993 to current, it is available online.

PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS ON MICROFICHE AND MICROFILM

	Executive Orders beginning in 1789 are in the Micrographics Room (Cabinet 9).
	Hint: If you've looked everywhere, and can't find an Executive Order, put the information into Google Book Search. Google Book Search is scanning some Executive Orders.

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Statutory Construction

The information located when you do legislative history research is usually meant to persuade a court that a particular interpretation of a statute is correct. In addition to the facts you have found, you may need to find persuasive legal authority. There is a body of case law that has been developed for interpreting legislative intent. Here are several useful places to look:

	Statutes and Statutory Construction, by Norman J. Singer [KF425.S9 2000 - Research Alcove] This title is available online from Westlaw in the SUTHERLAND database.
	Statutory Interpretation: The Search for Legislative Intent, by Ronald Benton Brown and Sharon Jacobs Brown [ KF425 .B76 2002 - 5th Floor Stacks].

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Last updated December 13, 2007
Prepared by Susan Nevelow Mart, Reference Librarian. Contact

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