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Using Histories to Trace A Bill's Path Through the Legislature
Once you have identified the bill number, the next step is to locate the bill's history. Histories list each action taken on a bill from its introduction to the governor's signature or veto, including who introduced the bill and which committees it was sent to and when.
For each two year legislative session, the Assembly and Senate both issue Final Histories, large print volumes that list the history for each bill introduced during the session, organized by bill number. To find your bill's history, access the Assembly or Senate Final History for the legislative session when your bill was introduced and then flip to your bill's number.
The Assembly Chief Clerk's website provides scans of Assembly and Senate Final Histories:
The library also keeps Final Histories for some years in print:
- Final Calendar of Legislative BusinessCall Number: 2nd Floor Row 232BPublication Date: 1951-1972Before 1972, the Assembly Final History and the Senate Final History were published together as the Final Calendar of Legislative Business.
In addition to the Final History, you may see references to the Weekly History, Daily History, or Daily File. These are essentially earlier versions of the Final History:
- The Daily File lists the proposed agenda for each legislative day.
- The Daily History lists what actually happened on each legislative day.
- The Daily History is compiled into the Weekly History, which is in turn compiled into the Final History.