Legislative histories are lists or compilations of the documents created when legislation becomes a U.S. public law, including:

• slip laws
• bills
• reports
• hearings
• committee prints
• debate
• amendments
• House & Senate documents
• presidential statements

Related bills, reports, and hearings may also be included.

In many cases legislative histories have been compiled by other researchers and commercial publishers. Before undertaking the research required to create a legislative history, check first to see if one already exists.

Note: legislative histories will not exist for bills that were not enacted into public law.