Jenkins On Your Desktop: Compiled Federal Legislative Histories on HeinOnline

The U.S. Federal Legislative History Library on HeinOnline contains a U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection for select legislative histories, with coverage beginning with the 14th Congress (1815-1817). This library also contains the Sources of Compiled Legislative History Database which provides bibliographies for all major laws, and the Legislative Reference Checklist which focuses on resources from 1789-1903.

To access the U.S. Federal Legislative History Library, use your last name and member number to log into Jenkins' website. From the Member Center, select HeinOnline. Once in Hein, from the Collections list on the left side select U.S. Federal Legislative History Library.

This library opens to the U.S. Federal Legislative History Title Collection tab by default. Browse by Publication Title, Public Law Number, or Popular Name to see if the act you are researching is listed. If you do not see the act listed by name, be sure to check by Public Law number as well. Click on the name of the act, then look through the Cumulative Contents to see collected documents. Please note, the full-text of legislative histories classified under the Taxation and Economic Reform in America library will not be available though Jenkins’ member access.

To find a list of additional materials such as treatises, law review articles, and looseleafs, click the tab at the top of the screen for Sources of Compiled Legislative History Database. Derived from the print publication Sources of Compiled Legislative Histories: A Bibliography of Government Documents, Periodical Articles, and Books by Nancy P. Johnson, this library provides a list of resources for major laws beginning in the 1st Congress (1789-1791). HeinOnline does not provide the full-text of all materials listed in this database. See HeinOnline’s Help & Support page for more information.

The U.S. Federal Legislative History Library on HeinOnline may be used as a way to begin research, however these resources may or may not include every document related to the passage of a law and also may not include full-text documents. Some compiled legislative histories provide only citations or abstracts, so further research may be required to obtain the complete documents.

For more search and browse tips within this HeinOnline library, see Jenkins Law Library Video Tip: HeinOnline’s Federal Legislative History Library and the Already Compiled tab of our Federal Legislative History resource guide.

For additional training and hands-on experience searching HeinOnline, register for the Jenkins Law Library: On Your Desktop CLE class. The class also covers ProQuest Congressional, another great source for legislative history materials, and other membership databases like Nolo, Law Journal Press Online Books, and Loislaw Treatise Library.

HeinOnline is a membership database available to most Jenkins members.