Topic: Federal Legislative History and Analysis — Record of Votes on Bills
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.
The Roll Call of Yeas and Nays when the House or Senate votes on a bill is recorded in the Congressional Record. For legislation voted on in the past fifty years, various online tools make finding the roll call a simple process. In the case of roll call votes prior to 1969, in many cases searching for the vote in the published Congressional Record (as in this example) is the only option. (This can still be done online with a few extra steps - see below).
Click the Floor Votes tab to select year and bill number in Browse All Floor Votes menu. (Note: if your bill appears in the 'Key Votes' menu, additional analysis of the vote tally will be available).
Provides an analytical survey of the history and development; powers; personalities; current developments; and legislation considered and passed by the United States Congress. From the Congressional Quarterly.
Data is organized in four sections:
* Public Policy Legislation presents legislative information and analysis under 23 broad topics such as agriculture, civil rights, national security, and transportation and hundreds of subtopics.
* Members of Congress includes biographical, political, and electoral data about every member of Congress since the 97th Congress (additional Congresses will be added periodically). It also includes links to each member's "CQ Key Votes" voting record and data on how various interest groups rate the members. An advanced member search allows the user to search for members by various demographic fields.
* CQ Key Votes organizes, by Congress and topic, the preferred data for scholarly research. Each individual "CQ Key Vote" is presented with a description of the vote along with the vote outcome by political party and includes links to the roll call vote, the full text of the legislation, and a state delegation vote map. It also provides the ability to conduct advanced vote analysis by various demographic fields.
* The Legislative Branch provides encyclopedic information, statistical data, legislative analysis, and Supreme Court case summaries relating to the structure and powers of Congress including committee information and its relationships with other branches of government and the media.
Full-text access to the Congressional Record and its predecessors, 1789-present.
Tips on Locating Record of Voting on Bills
Locating recording of votes on bills prior to 1945:
1789-1924: See subject entry for Yeas and Nays in Register of Debates in Congress and Annals of Congress (1789-1824) (in Hein Online (See Debates tab above for tips on searching Congressional Publications in Hein Online