Legal, policy and legislative researchers often study how Congress considered a particular piece of legislation. A variety of questions may underlie this effort. For example: What were the policy and intent of Congress in approving a particular piece of legislation? Which committees and members were the lead players? What arguments were asserted for or against the legislation and who made them? How was the legislative language amended as it advanced through the congressional process? What were the votes on proposed amendments and final passage? To research these and similar questions, one must identify the legislative steps the legislation followed and the materials that document what was done at each step. This information – the legislative steps and accompanying documentation – is known as legislative history. Gurevitz, Mark. "Legislative History: A Basic Guide For." March 22, 2002. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21178.pdf (accessed 02/26/2010).
There are many websites devoted to our federal legislative process. They range from those that present great detail to those that try to present bare basics with humor and music. If you need a civics review, check out one of the following links.
How Our Laws Are Made from the Library of Congress.
Government 101: How a Bill Becomes a Law from Project Vote Smart.
Quick and painless video of how a bill in the House or Senate becomes federal law. From the Facts of Congress.
Gov.info is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office is a service of GPO to provide free public access to the full text of official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. When you search the content available on govinfo, you will be able to download the full text of publications but you won’t see records for documents that are not stored on govinfo.
Congress.gov is an online resource for legislative research and publications sponsored by the Library of Congress. It includes: