Legislative Research for GOVT 452

First, find your bill number.

• Is your law from 1973 or later?
  • Complete this worksheet
  • Use this tutorial to:
    1. Find the list of actions taken on your bill using Congress.gov. 
    2. Write down each action and its Congressional Record page #.
    3. Look up the Congressional Record citations to these actions using HeinOnline. 
• Is your law pre-1973?
  • Complete this worksheet
  • Use this tutorial to:
    1. Find the list of actions on your bill using History of Bills & Resolutions in HeinOnline. 
    2. Write down each action & its date.
    3. Use the Citation Navigator in HeinOnline to find the page of each action & identify the date based on that page.

Sample Documents: What are you looking for?

1) Identify the major events in the history of the Bill

You now have the bill number in hand (example: 93 H.R. 11510). How did that Bill get through Congress?

You will use Congress.gov to get a list of the actions taken on your Bill.

• Congress.gov will give you the actions taken on a Bill and the dates of those actions
• Congress.gov covers only 1973 to present
• Instructions:
  • online tutorial: https://gmu.libwizard.com/f/congressdotgov or
  • powerpoint presentation below

2) Find specific actions in the Congressional Record

In Congress.gov, you found the dates of the actions on your Bill. Now you have to find some of those actions in the Congressional Record & record the citation. FOR QUESTION 6, YOU NEED THE CONG. REC. PAGE NUMBERS FOR BILL INTRODUCTIONS, PASSAGE, AND CONFERENCE REPORTS.

You will use HeinOnline to browse to the Congressional Record: 

• Use HeinOnline to Find the Page Numbers for Legislative Actions
  • Heinonline Covers the Congressional Record from 1873-present
  • For the most recent 5 years, you will probably have to use the Daily Edition. If your year is covered in the Bound Edition, you should use the Bound Edition.
  • Link: HeinOnline
  • Instructions: 
    • Powerpoint slides linked below (this presentation covers the entire process from congress.gov to HeinOnline.)
    • Online tutorial https://gmu.libwizard.com/f/congressional-record
• Alternative for 1998 - present: access the Congressional Record via GovInfo.gov
  • Browse to the relevant date in the Congressional Record 
  • Get to the correct section (Senate if your action was in the Senate, House if in the House)
  • Browse to find the action taken on that date.

1) Identify the major events in the history of the Bill

You now have the bill number in hand (example: 93 H.R. 11510). How did that Bill get through Congress?

For pre-1973 legislative histories, you will need to use a specific index to the Congressional Record called the HIstory of Bills. You'll find the History of Bills in HeinOnline. 

Using HeinOnline to find the History Of Bills for Assignment 2

• HeinOnline History of Bills will give you the action and the page in the Congressional Record
• The History of Bills covers 1873-2009
• IMPORTANT: If the actions in a History of Bills entry don't go from a Bill's introduction to its passage, check the other year of the relevant congress (e.g. 93-1 and 93-2) for the rest of the actions.
• Links: HeinOnline (New for 2022: Direct Link to History of Bills & Resolutions)
• Follow along step-by-step with this guide or see the PDF below

2) Find the dates of all actions in the Congressional Record

In the History of Bills, you found the page numbers for all actions taken on your Bill. Now you need to find the dates on which those actions occurred.

You will use HeinOnline's citation search to navigate to the Cong Rec pages & discover the dates of your actions.

• If you're in the citation search box, use this format: 120 Cong. Rec. 28664
• How to look up a citation in HeinOnline (2 minute video tutorial)

Note: govinfo.gov is not a good option for this step because its citation search only goes to 1995 in the Cong Rec.