A compiled legislative history can save you a lot of time. Someone has already gone to the work of bringing sources together so you do not need to reinvent the wheel. If you didn't have a compiled history to look at you would need to spend a lot of time to find where all of the different legislative documents are that are relevant to your law, such as looking through the Congressional Record and looking through published House reports.
The Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. is one good source to find already compiled legislative histories for federal laws. As the image above shows you, you can search for a particular law by Popular Name or Public Law Number.
Another good source for compiled legislative histories is Nancy P. Johnson's Sources of Complied Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books, 1st Congress-113th Congress, available in print at the library, and through HeinOnline. Johnson provides legislative histories by topic, rather than public law number, and also provides background readings for some legislative histories and select bibliographies.
Additional places to check for compiled legislative histories include ProQuest Legislative Insight, HeinOnline, Westlaw, and Lexis, among other other sources. For more information on using these sources, check out the rest of this guide.
