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Topic: Federal Legislative History and Analysis — Hearings

Tools and resources for researching the evolution of a law using the primary documents - the bill, committee reports, hearings, etc. - and secondary analysis of the legislation and federal policy.

Locating Congressional Hearings

House and Senate committees hearings are held to discuss proposed legislation, and often provide data and testimony of expert witnesses. Example: Underpaid Teachers and Crumbling Schools: How Underfunding Public Education Shortchanges America. House of Representatives:
Committee on Education and Labor, February 12, 2019.

Online access to Congressional hearings

Tips for locating hearings

House and Senate committees hearings are held to discuss proposed legislation, and often provide data and testimony of expert witnesses. Examples:

Climate change : status of the Kyoto Protocol after three years : joint hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, second session, September 28, 2000. SuDoc. number: Y 4.F 76/2:S.HRG.106-808

Most hearings begin with Y 4. in the SuDoc number, followed by an abbreviation for the committee (F for Foreign Relations); at the end of the SuDoc, hearings are numbered consecutively throughout a Congress for each committee.

Tips for locating references to Hearings:

  • 'All Actions' display for legislation included in Congress.gov may indicate whether hearings took place on a particular bill, but may not provide a link to the text of the hearing
  • Use FDsys to locate pdf of hearings held from 1985-present.
  • Carefully study and committee prints or reports for mentions of relevant hearing dates, and search for the hearing in ProQuest Congressional below.
  • The Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications (Babbidge Federal Documents Reading Room - Level B:   J 83 .M 66) in the final edition for each year provides a cumulative list of all reports, prints, and hearings published by each House and Senate committee.
  • WorldCat can also be used to locate committee reports, prints, and hearings.

Access to Congressional hearings in print

Hearings from a select number of House and Senate committees are available in print on Level B in the Babbidge Library​ from the 1950s to early 2000s. From 1976-present, most are included in the library catalog. SuDoc numbers for hearings begin with Y 4.