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Finding Facts, Reviews, and More
Researching U.S. Federal Legislation
Page 4 of 9
Step Four: Bill Sent to Second Chamber
In order to be introduced in the other house, a Congressperson must be recognized and announce the
introduction of the bill. Sometimes, when a bill has passed in one house, it becomes known as an act; however, this term usually means a bill that has become law. Just as in the first house, the bill then is assigned to a committee. The Senate committees then study and either release or table the bill just like the House standing committees and vice versa.
Possible Outcomes:
- If bill goes from one chamber to the other:
Bill keeps
original number in both houses. Procedures and sources are repeated as above;
- If bills introduced in both houses:
one bill substituted for another under Floor Action;
- If disagreement in versions of bill:
conference committee called; see next step for a description of coference committee activity.
Generally, any summary of legislative activity on a bill that has been passed into law is called a "legislative history". However, there are also summaries for bills not yet (or never) passed. These summaries have no set label, but are usually called something like a "bill tracking report." There is often a good bit of overlap between the two types of publication, but they are not simply different names for the same thing. The tracking reports focus more on the details, while legislative histories take more of a "big-picture" approach.
Resulting Publications and Locations:
Sources in italics are available only to students, faculty, and staff of the U of M unless accessing from a U of M campus library.
Must-Have Information for Second Chamber Publications
Bill Status
- LexisNexis Congressional
101st Cong. (1989) - present
-
Thomas
Status Reports link to increasingly greater amounts of full-text information; full-text bills start with the 101st Cong. (1989). Altogether, reports go back to 93rd Cong. (1973).
History of Bills
The History of Bills and Resolutions is a section of the Congressional Record Index that provides information about all bills and resolutions introduced during that session of Congress. Entries for each bill include actions that are reported in the Congressional Record and reference issue and date and pages where the action is reported.
- Congressional Record Index
WILSON Gov Pub (US Docs) X1.1/A
Row 99
43rd Cong. (1873) - present
- GPO Access
98th Cong. (1983) - present
Legislative Histories
-
LexisNexis Congressional
92nd Cong. (1970) - present
- CIS Annual
WILSON Gov Pub (Ref Indexes) (Non-Circulating)
Quarto KF49 .C62
Rows A-C
1970-1983 volumes have Legislative Histories in the back of the Abstract volume, while all later years have an individual Legislative History volume.
Must-Have Information for Second Chamber Publications
- Where given, row numbers lead to the exact shelving location the Government Publications Library - look for large numbers on the end of each shelving row. Rows are numbered in a clockwise direction around the room.
- The University Law Library also has most of these publications.
Back to Resulting Publications
Back to page 3
Continue to page 5 of 9
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