To determine this intent, one must locate materials from which a legislative history of the law can be developed. A legislative history is a collection of documents containing information considered by Congress before enacting a law. These documents include various forms of a bill, debates on the floor of the Senate or House, hearings held by congressional committees considering a bill, reports issued by these committees, and presidential messages. The government frequently issues legislative histories for major pieces of legislation which reprint all hearings, reports, and other relevant materials.
Commercial publishers reprint legislative histories issued by the government or publish their own.
The following bibliography can be used to determine if a compiled legislative history has been issued for the act being examined. The public catalog must then be checked to see if the LRC owns it. The references to legislative histories included here are arranged by Congress, and within each Congress by public law number. Each entry is in standard bibliographic form to facilitate quick location of the compilation in the online catalog. All compilations vary in the quality and the quantity of congressional documents.