1. FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE HISTORY Part 2 Margaret Clark FSU Law Research Center Fall 2008

2. Federal Legislative History - 2 What is legislative history? What search strategy to use? What tools can I use to search legislative history?  Thomas (free, government web site)  LexisNexis Congressional (FSU database )  LexisNexis: CIS Legislative History (not free)  Westlaw: Graphical Statutes (not free)

3. What is legislative history? A collection of related documents produced by Congress during the enactment, or rejection, of a proposed public law. bills hearing documents prints reports debates voting history conference report signing statement public law

4. Tools for Searching Legislative History Thomas (free, government web site) LexisNexis Congressional (FSU database) LexisNexis: CIS Legislative History (not free) Westlaw: Graphical Statutes (not free)

5. Researching Legislative History STEP 1: Identify public law number STEP 2: Identify bill number STEP 3: Find legislative history documents STEP 4: Read and analyze documents If you are starting with Popular Name or US Code Citation:

6. THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov search by popular name “Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act”

7. “Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act” Victims of trafficking

8. THOMAS http://thomas.loc.gov search by Public Law number

11. LexisNexis Academic - Congressional Legislative Histories

12. Searching by US Code citation LexisNexis Congressional

13. LexisNexis Congressional: Searching by US Code citation LexisNexis Congressional

16. Searching by Popular Name LexisNexis Congressional

17. Starting with U.S. Code Citation 1.Legislative Histories; Get a Document; Enter U.S. Code citation (find public law #) 2.Select public law (find bill #) 3.Select Legislative History Starting with Popular Name 1.Legislative Histories; Keyword Search; enter popular name; restrict by Congress

18. LexisNexis: Searching by Popular Name

19. LexisNexis CIS Legislative Histories

22. Searching Public Law Number (older than 1980) LexisNexis CIS Legislative Histories

25. Legislative history for sections enacted after 1996. Legislative history for sections enacted after 1996.

27. LexisNexis - CIS Legislative Histories

28. LexisNexis Congressional

29. Questions?