Locating Committee Hearings and Reports
Committee hearings are meetings of small groups of legislators who hear testimony on a bill. The U.S. Congress routinely publishes both committee hearings (print compilations of hearing transcripts and materials submitted to the committee) and committee reports (reports that are, at least nominally, authored by the committee itself, as opposed to bill analyses written by the committee staff.)
The California legislature only rarely publishes committee hearings and reports and tracking down the ones it has published can be difficult.
First, for bills passed from 1946 to 1970, check for committee reports in the appendices to the:
Second, search library catalogs to locate copies of committee hearings and reports in print. Generally, the most effective search method is to search the committee name in the Author field, in the format "California. Legislature. Assembly Committee on..." or "California. Legislature. Senate Committee on..."
- Interlibrary LoanBorrow books and articles from other libraries. Provide the full citation for faster and more accurate results.
Finally, check lists of committee hearings, reports, and other government publications:
- California Legislative Committees and ReportsCall Number: Law Basement/LC JK8771 .C36aLists legislative reports published from 1937 to 1973.
- Hearings and Reports of Committees of the California LegislatureCall Number: 2nd Floor/California Collection KFC20 .R46Lists Senate and Assembly hearings and reports published from 1961 to 1971 and 1979 to 1984.
- California in PrintCall Number: 2nd Floor/California Collection KFC5 .C34Publication Date: 1983-1995Biweekly list of reports produced by the legislature and agency and judicial reports received by the legislature.
- California State PublicationsCall Number: Law Media Center Z1223.5.C2 C24Publication Date: 2001-present online; 1982-1999 in microficheLists publications by the California government.
- Joint Publications CatalogCall Number: 2nd Floor/California Collection KFC20 .C33 1988Publication Date: 1988Catalog of Assembly and Senate committee reports and hearing transcripts available for sale from the Joint Publications Office in 1988. Includes reports dated from 1983 to 1998.
- Assembly Publications CatalogPublication Date: 1992 & 1995Catalog of Assembly committee reports and hearing transcripts available for sale from the Assembly in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Includes reports dated from 1989 to 1995.
- Senate Publications CatalogCall Number: 2nd Floor/California Collection KFC20 .S46Publication Date: 1997 & 1999Catalog of Senate publications available for sale, including selected materials dating back to 1974. The current catalog is available online and the library owns the 1997 and 1999 catalogs in print.
