Department of Justice Makes Digitized Legislative Histories Available

The Department of Justice (DOJ) began in August to make available to the public digitized versions of legislative histories that have been compiled over the years by the DOJ library staff. The histories, previously only available to DOJ employees as multi-volume paper publications through the main library collection, are now accessible at justice.gov,

According to the the DOJ's blog, most legislative histories include and organize the U.S. Public Law; House and Senate documents; House, Senate, and Conference reports; House and Senate committee hearings; Congressional debates (Congressional Record); related bills; and presidential statements.

This permits researchers to search and review compiled legislative documents in order to clarify statutory language. The DOJ blog post says that the department's histories "may be more comprehensive than other legislative histories on the same laws available through other libraries or research databases."