Federal Legislative History Research: Hearings

Bills are assigned to standing committees of the House or Senate, where hearings are held to investigate concerns and elicit views of persons interested or expert in proposed legislation.  The Law Library collects many hearings, which may be searched by title or keyword in the online catalog.

Bluebook Rule 13.3

"Federal committee hearings. When citing federal committee hearings, always include the entire subject matter title as it appears on the cover, the bill number (if any), the subcommittee name (if any), the committee name, the number of the Congress, the page number of the particular material being cited (if any), and the year of publication."

Example

Combating Hate Crimes: Promoting a Responsive and Responsible Role for the Federal Government: Hearing on S. 517 Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 106th Cong. 27-30 (1999) (statement of Judy Shepard). 

BloombergLaw:               

• The U.S. House & Senate House and Senate Committee Transcripts: Transcripts of select hearings before committees of the U.S. Senate. (content appears to duplicate that found GPO FDsys.)

Westlaw:

• USTestimony database: Agendas and witness lists for U.S. congressional committee hearings, transcripts of oral statements, and written statements submitted to committees of Congress. Coverage begins with January 1993 and includes increased coverage from January 1996 to present and selected coverage from 1993 to 1996.
• CONGTMY database: The CONGTMY database contains selected full text documents from Congressional Testimony, as provided by NewsRoom to West.

Online:            

• FDsys: Contains selected House and Senate hearings for the 105th Congress (1997-98) forward. 
• govinfo.gov: (Select testimony from the 99th Cong., 1985 - present)

In the Library: 

• Shelved by the {SuDocs} Y4... number in the microfiche cabinets in the Library Subplaza