UCI Law Research Guides: Legislative History: Hearings

Finding Hearings

Best Bet

For most UCI researchers, ProQuest Congressional is the best source for both: 1) locating hearings when you already know the date or the committee, and 2) searching the full text of published and unpublished hearings. Other sources can be useful if you are off campus or are looking for a different type of media (like video from C-SPAN.)

ProQuest Congressional
Extensive collection of federal legislative history documents, including bills, hearing testimony, congressional records, and CRS reports.

Other Options

Congressional Hearings | Library of Congress - LOC.gov
Growing topical collection of hearings (e.g., on immigration). PDF
C-SPAN.org
Free video recordings of select hearings and some political events. Coverage begins ~1987.
Rutgers Law Library | Congressional Documents Online
Includes select congressional documents. Coverage starts in the 1970s.
Congressional Hearings - GPO.gov
PDF. Coverage of published committee hearings starts ~1998. Very select coverage before that date.

CIS US Congressional Committee Hearings Index
Call Number: KF 40 .C56
Abstracts (not full text) of hearings from 1833 - 1969.

Senate and House Committees also make transcripts and video of hearings available on their websites. For recent hearings, try finding the committee's site with Google or another major search engine.

About Hearings

What is a hearing?

A hearing is a meeting of a Senate, House, joint, or special committee convened to solicit opinion on proposed legislation, conduct an investigation, evaluate a department, assess a law, or gather other information of interest. Most congressional hearings are public. Official transcripts are usually available within two months to two years.

"Published" hearings include prepared written testimony submitted by witnesses.
"Unpublished" hearings are formerly classified hearings that have been de-classified.
"Oral Testimony" refers to a record or transcription of what was actually said at a hearing.

How do you cite a hearing?

See Bluebook Rule 13.3. Example:

The Safe Port Act: Hearing on H.R. 4954 Before the Subcomm. on Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Cybersecurity of the H. Comm. on Homeland Security, 109th Cong. (2006).