LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

I. Standard Search Strategies

A. Lexis

• choose More Sources - US Legal/Federal/Legislative
• .gu - as search to determine what database/file contains
• search GUIDE:GUIDE - for availability and coverage
• segments - use to retrieve specific documents or to narrow search

B. Westlaw

• look through directory
• scope - to determine what database/file contains
• search IDEN database - for availability and coverage
• fields - use to retrieve specific documents or to narrow search

II. Relevant Libraries:Files and Databases

A. Lexis - legis library

a. Bills - bills - combined text of bills and bill tracking for current (105th) Congress
-bltext - text of bills from current (105th) Congress
-bltrck - tracking status of bills from current (105th) Congress
-btx104 (bill text), blt104 (bill tracking) - from 104th cong (goes back to 101st cong.)

b. Hearings (written) - cngtst from 1993
(oral-selected) - news or legis library ; fednew file

c. Committee reports - cmtrpt - from January 1990 (selected coverage of the 101st Congress), (prior to 1990 - bankruptcy, banking(firrea),env,secuirities,tax(all versions since 1954))

d. House and Senate Debates - Congressional Record - 105th - for 105th Congress
- 104th, 103rd, 102nd, 101st, 100th, 99th (goes back to 1985)
- Record for combined Congresses
- daily digest - 105DIG, goes back to 99DIG : Digest for all Digests combined

e. Compiled sources - CIS - cislh - back to 1970

f. Public Laws - publaw covers all Public Laws back to 100th Cong., 2d sess.

B. Westlaw

a. Bills - cong-billtxt* - bills from the current (105th) Congress
- cong-billtxt104* - bills from the 104th Congress
- us-billtrk - tracking status of bills from current (105th) Congress

*available on law school subscription only, for commercial subscription use cq-billtxt

b. Hearings - USTESTIMONY - oral and written testimony back to 1993

c. Committee reports - LH (selected reports from USCCAN - 1948-present plus all reports from 1990-, and pres signing statements in USCAAN)

d. House and Senate Debates - Congressional Record - CR - from 1985

e. Compiled sources - in Westlaw Directory, see Legislative History - Specific Acts

f. Public Laws - US-PL (current), US-PL-OLD (archive) back to 1989

III. Sample Searches

A. Lexis

legis;bills - campaign /s finance

legis;cngtst .gu headline(campaign and finance) - last two years

news;fednew - section(hearing) and headline(campaign and finance) - last two years

legis;cmrpt - title(campaign and finance)

105th - campaign /s finance

legis;cislh - CIS (CIS abstracts and legislative histories) PL(103-270)

legis;publaw - cite(105 pl 1)

B. Westlaw

cong-billtxt- campaign /s finance

ustestimony - ti(campaign and finance) and da(aft 1996)

LH -campaign /s finance and da(aft 1996)

LH - ti(president! and statement) and . . . .

CR - campaign /s finance and da(aft 1996)

US-PL - ci(105-1)

C. WEB

Thomas - http://thomas.loc.gov/

GPO Access - http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dbsearch.html

CIS - http://web.lexis-nexis.com/congcomp/ (available by subscription, only)