Sample Assignment: Find all the documents that make up the legislative history of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, PL 109-8.

 Enter the PL number in the Citation Checker.  The Statutes at Large cite and the Bill number should automatically populate as well as a Go To Legislative History button.

You are now looking at a compiled legislative history of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.  You should see the background information at the top and then all the documents,

For each type of document you have 2 links:  to the document's metadata including abstract; and to the digital PDF of the document  where available.  Each listing also includes bibliographic information about the document: its title; date of publication; # of pages; and Sudoc # (this is its call number ... where you can find the document in print in the library)

• Bills:
  • The enacted Senate bill is listed as well as all of its predecessors
  • The House Companion bill, as well as all its predecessors
  • House and Senate bills from prior Congresses that died in session but were related to the bill just enacted. 
• Congressional Record References
  • Text of Debates, Votes, Speeches concerning the various bills. 
• Reports
  • House and Senate Committee Reports issued on all the bills.  These are grouped by Congressional year.
  • Conference Report ... if any
• Committee Hearings .. including any from earlier Congresses
• Committee Prints .. if any
• Miscellaneous Congressional Publications .. if any
• Presidential Signing Statement ... if any

For lots of information about the  happenings in a specific congressional year, click on the Historical Context link at the very top right of your screen.

Use ProQuest Congressional when you are looking for a Congressional document other than a compiled legislative history (for which you should use Legislative Insight):

Searching Rules (from Advanced Searching: Search Syntax, More information, etc.)

• Use ? to replace a single letter
• Use * to truncate
• Use quotes to search for a phrase.
• The default search if no connectors is 'and.'
• Use Near/n for your proximity connector