After each session of Congress, it is reissued in bound volumes. It contains the public laws for each session of Congress and has separate volumes for legislative histories. Starting with the 99th congress, it expanded its coverage, usually including the House or Senate report and the conference report. It also now includes any statement that the President made upon signing the law. These statements often contain citations to the Congressional Record .
Some areas covered are pensions, environment, banking, bankruptcy, and securities.
The documents included vary with each legislative history. Frequently, a legislative history has to be compiled during the course of one's research. The first step in this process is to obtain a list of documents related to the public law, the legislation that was not enacted, or the pending bill. The sources described below will provide information, references, or citations to the documents generated during the bill's progress. The tables are cumulated in the annual bound volume.