US GAO Federal Legislative Histories on Westlaw (FED-LH)
Westlaw now offers you thousands of federal legislative histories compiled by GAO law librarians in an easily searchable format
No more time-consuming searches for rare, scattered documents. With one search in FED-LH, get the compiled history of virtually every statute passed by Congress between 1954 and 1995 – with links to original historical documents in PDF format.
More than 11,500 compiled histories
- Coverage of most federal public laws enacted between 1954 and 1995
- Original documents in PDF format
See FED-LH for FREE, a sample on Westlaw.
On Westlaw you can view and print a sample FED-LH document – and even view all PDF documents linked to it – without incurring search or transactional charges. Go to this database on Westlaw DEMO-FED-LH and see compiled legislative history for Pub. L. No. 99-607, a piece of minor legislation selected to minimize unauthorized use.
Planned Release over four years: More than 20,000 compiled histories
- Coverage from 1915, 1921 to 1995
- Nearly one million legislative documents in PDF format
Get complete federal legislative histories
Legislative history for a public law includes original versions of all documents leading up to the passage of the law, including but not limited to:
- Bill text
- Bill tracking and summaries
- Public laws
- Committee reports
- Congressional Record
- Testimony
- Presidential statements and messages
- Committee schedules
- Executive orders
Advantages of U.S. GAO Federal Legislative Histories on Westlaw
- Gain the persuasive edge in discussions of vaguely worded statutes
- Discern congressional intent
- Demonstrate precise definitions of terms
- In seconds, retrieve legislative histories that might otherwise have taken you days to compile yourself
- Find documents that would have been impossible to find in the past
- Legislative documents are often rare, scattered and difficult or impossible to locate. In FED-LH, they're at your fingertips!
- Get a first-hand view of history
- View original documents in PDF format