Federal Legislative History Guide

The legislative history of a federal law consists of the documents created by the legislature (Congress) during the process of creating the law.  This includes things like committee reports, statements made by members of Congress during the debate, testimony at committee hearings, and prior and alternate versions of the bill. 

Legislative history is most commonly used to determine or make arguments about legislative intent in court, which is making arguments to a judge about what the legislature wanted the bill to do. This is an argument that would only be made if there is ambiguity in the statute and there is not case precedent.  However, legislative history also has other uses, such as by advocacy organizations and as a source for facts, such as statistics or testimony that may be produced or submitted to a committee.

Note:

• Legislative history is different from the history of statute, which refers to how a particular statute might be amended or otherwise change over time. 
• Legislative history is also different from bill tracking, or keeping track of new bills and their progress in a particular area of law.  While these bill drafts may eventually become a part of a legislative history, they are not the same thing as a legislative history.