Legislation and Legislative History

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Legislation and Legislative History
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The Alligators!

• The objective of all dedicated employees is to
  thoroughly analyze all situations, anticipate all
  problems prior to their occurrence, have answers
  for these problems, and move swiftly to solve
  these problems when called upon
• However, when you are up to your ass in
  alligators, it is difficult to remember that your
  initial objective was to drain the swamp

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The Paradigm

• The US Government Manual (National Archives)
• Ben's Guide to the US Government (GPO)
• University of Minnesota Government Publications
• University of Minnesota Law Library
• Llrx.com

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The Origins of Current Law
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A decision made by a branch of the federal
government

• Legislation, Statute, Act
• Rule, Regulation

Judicial Opinion
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The Problems

• A. Understanding the outcomes of the various
  debates that lead to acts, rules, and judicial
  opinions
• Legislation (act, statute, laws), legislative
  process, cumulation and codification
• Regulations (rules), rule-making process,
  cumulation and codification
• Judicial Opinions, litigation process, court
  rules, encyclopedias, digests
• B. Understanding the databases (books) in which
  these outcomes, even the debates, are published
• Statutes at Large (Public Law), US Code
• Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations
• United States Reports, other reporters
• There may not be a single database or book that
  can answer all your questions
• Not every database is useful each has good and
  bad points

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Electronic Databases

• Official published by the federal government
• USA.gov
• GPOAccess
• Unofficial published by a commercial publisher
• LexisNexis Congressional (Elsevier)
• FedLaw (Center for Regulatory Effectiveness)
• Legal Information Institute (Cornell University)
• FindLaw (ThomsonWest Group)
• Uncle Sam (Google)

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Statutory Law, Statute, Legislation, Act (Law)

• Researching Federal Legislation (University of
  Minnesota)
• Legislative Sourcebook (Law Librarians' Society
  of Washington DC)
• DO NOT USE THE WORD LAW to refer to Statutory
  Law

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Structure of the Legislative Branch

• Senate
• House of Representatives
• Legislative Agencies Commissions
• Library of Congress
• Congressional Research Service (University of
  Oregon)
• Congressional Research Service. Reports (National
  Council for Science the Environment)
• Selected Congressional Research Service Reports
  on Congress and Its Procedures (Law Librarians
  Society)
• General Accountability Office
• Government Printing Office
• Congressional Budget Office

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Outcome - Statute enacted by Congress and signed
into law by the President

• End of every session of Congress
• Statutes-at-Large (GPO)
• Pub.L. 110-288 To amend the Federal Water
  Pollution Control Act to address certain
  discharges incidental to the normal operation of
  a recreational vessel. NOTE July 29, 2008 - S.
  2766
• LexisNexis Congressional (Elsevier)
• Hein Online (William S. Hein Co)
• Popular Names of Acts (Cornell University)

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Statutes at Large Citation is always to a
Statutes at Large volume and a page number

• When a bill becomes law it is published in the
  Statutes at Large
• Published by the United States Government
  Printing Office, it is slow to be produced
• Commercial publishers, on the other hand, publish
  them much faster
• The Statutes at Large contain public laws,
  private laws usually applying to a particular
  party proclamations, and resolutions
• A record of all the statutes that have been
  passed during a particular congressional session
• The statutes are arranged chronologically but
  there is a subject index
• NB There is no cumulative index. Each volume,
  which may consist of several parts, has an index

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(No Transcript)
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The process of making legislation (Legislative
History)

• Enactment of a law (Senate)
• How our laws are made (House of Representatives)
• Federal Legislative History Research A
  Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents
  and Sifting for Legislative Intent (PDF version)
  (Law Librarians Society)
• Legislative Histories United States Congress
  (University of Michigan)
• Finding Federal Legislative History (University
  of Minnesota Law Library)

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Specific kinds of documents are produced at each
stage of the legislative process

• Introduced bills
• Congressional Record
• Committee Hearings
• Committee Prints
• Committee Reports
• Congressional Record
• Presidential messages

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Committee Hearings

• Transcripts of testimonies from witnesses and
  other related materials
• Congressional Bibliography (North Carolina State
  Univ.)
• Congressional Universe (LexisNexis)
• GPO Access
• Congressional Hearings on the Web (Univ. of
  Michigan)

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Committee Prints

• Committee Prints are informational and research
  publications produced by committees or parts of
  committees
• Committee prints often are the most useful
  publications to examine for situation reports,
  statistical or historical information, and
  legislative analysis
• Congressional Committee Prints (Government
  Printing Office) 

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Committee Reports

• U.S. Serial Set comprises a series of bound
  volumes containing the texts of House and Senate
  Reports and Documents, Senate Treaty Documents,
  and Senate Executive Reports
• Older issues contain House and Senate Journals,
  agency reports to Congress, and varies other
  publications
• Congressional Reports (GPO)
• US Congressional Serial Set (GPO)
• Serial Set (Readex) Access via UMN Libraries
  ltGovernment Publicationsgt

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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Codification and Cumulation

• Statutes, acts, or legislation often amend
  existing statutory law
• Statutes, acts, or legislation enacted
  chronologically
• Need for some sort of subject classification -
  codification
• Need for a publication that includes only
  existing or current statutory law, not statutory
  law that has been repealed - cumulation

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United States Code - Cumulation and Codification

• Federal statutes currently in force are arranged
  by subject matter in fifty titles
• Published by Government Printing Office it is
  recompiled every six years and is supplemented
  annually
• The current  version of the USC began in 1926
• USCA and USCS are preferred to the USC
• They are more current, and they have annotations
  e.g., references to cases, law review articles,
  regulations authorized by the statutes, and books
  
• All three sources of federal statutes have a
  subject index, a volume of tables for converting
  Statutes at Large citations to code citations,
  and a popular name listing

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The Process of Cumulation

• Part of a statute enacted in 1945 amended in 1950
  
• The statutory law in 1950 thus was a compilation
  of statutes enacted in 1945 and 1950
• The 1950 statutory law was amended in 1978
• The amendments concerned parts of the 1945
  legislation and the 1950 legislation
• In 1978, the statutory law was a compilation of
  statutes enacted in 1945, 1950, and 1978
• The statutory law has not been changed since
• The US Code today reflected the existing
  statutory law 1945 1950 1978

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U. S. Code

• GPO Access
• Office of the Law Revision Counsel (House)
• Cornell University Legal Information Institute
• United States Code Annotated (Thomson West)
• United States Code Service (Elsevier) LexisNexis
  Congressional

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Other sources of legislative information

• National Journal
• Government Information Quarterly (TC Internet
  Resource Online Resource)
• National Library for the Environment
• Statistical Resources on the Web (University of
  Michigan Documents Center)
• News Media newspaper, journals, television
• Law Review articles (LexisNexis Academic)

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Congressional Quarterly Inc.

• Congress and the Nation
• vol. 1. 1945-1964
• vol. 2. 1965-1968
• vol. 3. 1969-1972
• vol. 4. 1973-1976
• vol. 5. 1977-1980
• vol. 6. 1981-1984
• vol. 7. 1985-1988
• vol. 8. 1989-1992
• vol. 9. 1993-1996
• vol. 10.1997-2000
• vol. 11. 2001-2004

• CQ Weekly
• CQ Researcher
• CQ Almanac
• CQ Almanac Plus

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Notes for Project 2

• All legislation found in the U S Code has been
  published as a Public Law in a Statutes at Large
  volume (or the electronic equivalent)
• Not all legislation published as a Public Law in
  a Statutes at Large volume will be published in
  the US Code
• Each Public Law has a legislative history
• A Public Law published in a Statute at Large
  volume is divided into sections
• Large pieces of legislation may be divided into
  separate parts called Titles
• A Public Law usually retains its structure when
  codified and compiled in the U S Code
• Each section in the US Code is a section in a
  Public Law. It is not the entire statute enacted
  by Congress
• Choose a statute that was enacted after 1970 but
  not very recently

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Look at a particular agencys web site
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Compiling a Legislative History

• Find the Public Law number or Statutes at Large
  citation
• Newspaper and journal articles frequently cite
  the popular names of statutes
• Use Popular Names Index (US Code) or LexisNexis
  Congressional to obtain the correct citation
• Find the statute in the appropriate volume of the
  Statutes at Large
• Overviews and analyses of the act
• Look in the index of the Congressional Quarterly
  Almanac volume for the year the legislation was
  passed
• Look in the index of the volume of the National
  Journal for the year the law was passed
• Look for a law review article

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LexisNexis Congressional

• ltLegislative Histories, Bills, and Lawsgt
• ltUS Codegt
• ltEndangered Speciesgt
• 80 lt16 USCS 668dd TITLE 16. CONSERVATION, CHAPTE
  R 5A. PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF
  WILDLIFE, ENDANGERED SPECIES OF FISH AND
  WILDLIFE, 668dd.  National Wildlife Refuge
  System, UNITED STATES CODE SERVICEgt
• Nb Unofficial version of US Code
• Text of current Statutory Law
• Amendments
• Regulations
• Court Cases

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The Appendix

• Copy of the Official Statutes at Large (GPO
  Access or Hein Online)
• Copy of the Legislative History (from LexisNexis
  Congressional)
• Copy of the U.S. Code (from GPO Access or
  LexisNexis Congressional)