Use the Legislative Citations option to retrieve a legislative history by a bill number, Statutes at Large citation, or public law number.

Legislative histories cite congressional publications and daily Congressional Record debate associated with each public law. Referenced publications may include congressional reports, hearings, documents, and/or prints. A legislative history compilation enables researchers to trace the development of a law from its earliest consideration to its signing by the President. Legislative histories from 1984 forward contain numerous hypertext links to abstracts for congressional publications, and legislative histories from 1995 forward contain hypertext links to the daily Congressional Record.

Legislative histories may be retrieved using Public Law numbers, Statutes at Large numbers, or Enacted bill numbers as follows:

Public Law Number

Public laws are assigned sequential numbers within a Congress (for example, P.L.104-1). If you know the public law number, you can retrieve a legislative history for that law. Use the drop-down list to select a specific Congress, then enter the bill number in the form.

Statute at Large Number

Statutes at Large is the official compilation of legislation passed and signed into law during each session of Congress. A new volume, arranged sequentially in order of passage, is issued for each Congress. To retrieve documents using a Statutes at Large citation, you must know the volume and page number.

Enacted Bill Number

Bill numbers are assigned sequential numbers within a Congress (for example, the first bill introduced in the Senate during the 104th Congress would be S. 1). If you know the enacted bill number associated with a law, you can retrieve a legislative history for that law. Use the second drop-down list to select the bill type.