A newsletter from West providing Westlaw® search tips for corporate counsel and staff

How long would it take to retrieve the entire legislative history of U.S. Pub. L. No. 101-12 (Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989)—including the full text of the public law, floor debates from the Congressional Record, all committee and conference reports, congressional testimony, presidential signing statements, and other relevant materials?

If you answered with a loud sigh, try this:

1. Access the newly released U.S. GAO Federal Legislative Histories database (FED-LH).
2. Type the public law number, title, or other known information in the appropriate text boxes in the search template.
3.Click Search Westlaw.

You retrieve a document with links to PDF images of all legislative history materials that relate to the passage of the law. You spent only a few seconds—not hours or days.

Links to FED-LH documents are also displayed on the Links tab for selected U.S. public laws and in the Graphical Statutes® charts and Reports and Related Materials results (accessed via the Links tab) for selected sections of the United States Code Annotated® (USCA®).

Released in November 2007, FED-LH contains more than 1,300 comprehensive legislative histories compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) for selected laws enacted between 1988 and 1995. Coverage will eventually include more than 20,000 legislative histories—with links to approximately 1 million legislative documents—beginning with 1915.

If you have questions about FED-LH or need search assistance, call the West Reference Attorneys at 1-800-REF-ATTY (1-800-733-2889).