Legislative History Research: A Guide

A bill is the basic legal form of legislation. How a bill becomes a law is rather complicated, therefore in the following information provided focus on the most  basic, important steps of the process. You may link below to resources containing the documents produced during each step, or go directly to resources through the above tabs. For more in-depth explanations of how are laws are made, try the following resources:

• How Our Laws Are Made
• Enactment of a Law

• The idea for a bill may be proposed by a Congressman, Senator, or any individual citizen or group of citizens.

• In some cases preliminary hearings are held on the issues concerning the necessity for proposing the legislation.

• The idea for legislation often originates with the President of the United States in the form of an "executive communication." Executive communications often follow on the President's message to Congress in the State of the Union.

Find presidential messages & executive communications.

Find hearings.

Find State of the Union addresses.

• The Congressman who introduces the bill is referred to as the "sponsor".
  
  
• The Congressmen who support the bill are called "co-sponsors".

• After a bill is introduced it is assigned a sequential number.

• Bills get new numbers with each new Congress, however the same bill may be introduced in either or both House and Senate.

• There are four types of House and Senate bills with specific number designations.

Find bill texts and amendments.

Hearings 

• If a bill is considered important or high-profile, hearings are conducted.

• Hearings will contain testimony (written and oral) of witnesses. Witnesses may include administrative officials, bill supporters and opponents, subject experts, public interest groups, and other people affected by the legislation.

• Transcripts of hearings are published individually and are referred to by title.

• Keep in mind that hearings are not held for most bills.

Find transcripts of hearings

Bill Markup 

•  A commitee will "mark-up" the bill (debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation) so that it passes on the floor.

• If significant amounts of changes are made to the bill, a new "clean bill" may be produced and the old bill discarded. This bill will be given a new number. So it is possible to have multiple bills for a law.

Committee Reports

• After mark-up, the committee receives the subcommittee's report, and the full committee votes on its recommendation to the House or Senate.

• If committee members approve and report the bill out of the committee, a "committee report" is issued. The bill also must pass through the House Rules Committee.

• Reports are widely used to determine the bill’s intent and meaning.
  
• A legislative history of the bill is often included in the committee report, as is a section-by-section analysis of the bill.
  
• Committee reports are considered to be the most important documents of legislative history research.
  
• Committee members who oppose a bill sometimes write a dissenting opinion in the report.

Find committee reports. 

Bill Placed on Calendar

After a bill is reported out of committee and back to the House, it is placed on the House (or Senate) calendar: There are four House calendars:

1. Union Calendar
2. House Calendar
3. Private Calendar
4. Discharge Calendar

There is one Senate calendar. These calendars are compiled in one publication called Calendars of the United States House of Representatives and History of Legislation.

View Calendars of the U.S. House of Representatives

Debates

• The bill is sent to the floor of the House or Senate for debate.

• The Rules Committee determines the length of the debate.

• Non-controversial bills often skip this procedure and are considered under 'Supension of the Rules'.

Find legislative debates.

Voting/ passage of bill (in the first house)

• After the debates and the approval of any amendments, the bill is passed or defeated by the members voting.

• If the bill is passed it is introduced in the other House and the process is repeated.

Find voting records.

• If the House and Senate publish different versions of the bill, a Conference Committee with members from both the House and Senate is formed to work out the differences. Once this is accomplished, a Conference report is produced by the Committee.

• Conference reports are considered to be extremely important documents for legislative history research!

Find conference committee reports.

Once the bill and its amendments have been officially passed by both houses ("enrolled") the following things can occur:

• The President signs the bill.

• The President can include a "signing statement."

• The President can VETO the bill.

• The President can "not act" on the bill. (If congress is in session the bill becomes law after 10 days/ If Congress is not in session, the bill dies after 10 days (called a POCKET VETO).

Read about the Presidential Veto & Congressional Procedure.