Legislative History: The Point-and-Click Method

A picture is worth 1,000 words, especially when you're doing legislative history research.

We're referring to the tabbed Legislative History–Federal page on Westlaw, which displays an interactive diagram of the congressional legislative process. If you need documents (e.g., historical bills, committee reports, or presidential messages) from a specific step of the legislative process, all you have to do is click a step on the diagram, and a search page for databases relevant to that step is displayed.

For example, to search databases related to legislative debate on a bill, click Legislative debate on bill. A Search page is displayed that contains check boxes for databases such as Congressional Record (CR), U.S. Testimony (USTESTIMONY), and U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN). Type your search in the Search text box, then use the check boxes to select one or more databases to search.

To select the Legislative History–Federal page, click Add a Tab on any Westlaw page. At the next page, click Add Westlaw Tabs to display a list of available tabbed pages. Then click Legislative History–Fed under Jurisdictional–Federal.

[Note: For easy access to a Search page for state-specific legislative history materials, use the Legislative History–State page.]

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