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US Legislative Materials & Histories: Committee Hearings

This guide is designed to help you find federal legislative documents in the Law Library, in the Graduate Library, and through online resources

Committee Hearings

Indexed By:

  1. Lexis-Nexis Congressional. 1789-present
  2. CIS Index to Publications of the United States Congress. 1970-present
  3. CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings Index. 1833-1969
  4. Congressional Index. 1939-present
  5. CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. Senate Committee Hearings, 1823-1980
  6. CIS Index to Unpublished U.S. House of Representatives Committee Hearings, 1833-1964 

♦ See the Legislative History Indexes tab for details on using these indexes. ♦

Obtaining Text:

1969 to the present - Hearings are in the Law Library in the CIS Microfiche Library. See the Legislative History Indexes tab for details on how to request fiche.

1789-present - Full text of hearings are available in Proquest Congressional.

1985-present - Full text of selected hearings beginning with the 99th Congress are also available on FDSys.

Selected pre-1935 - Hearings may be located in the Law Library by doing a title search in the MLaw Catalog.  If the Law Library does not have the hearing, ask a librarian in the Docs Center at the Grad Library for assistance in locating a specific hearing.

1833 to the present - The Documents Center at the Graduate Library has hearings on CIS fiche from  Please see the Finding Legislative Materials tab of this guide.

Finding Materials

Hearings dating from:

  • 1985 to Current - FDSys.
  • 1987/88 to Current - Grad library Docs Center or Buhr; paper. The Docs Center does not have copies of all hearings. The paper card catalogue at the Docs Center has a listing of which hearings are kept in the Docs Center and which hearings are in Buhr. 
  • 1969 to Current -  Law Library; fiche.  Consult CIS Index to Publications of the U.S. Congress to find CIS fiche number. 
  • Prior to 1935 - Law Library; paper.  Use the various CIS hearings indexes to find a citation, then check MLaw Catalog.  If the Law Library doesn't own the one you need, consult a librarian at the Docs Center in the Grad Library.
  • 1833-1969 - Grad Library Docs Center; fiche. Name: "CIS Retrospective Hearings." Use the various CIS hearings indexes to find a citation, then check MLaw Catalog.  If the Law Library doesn't own the one you need, consult a librarian at the Docs Center.  The individual hearings are also largely cataloged in the U-M Library Catalog.
  • 1789-current - Proquest Congressional.  Use the advanced search to limit by type of documents or to specify a witness (if known). 

Links to additional Internet Resources can be found on the Internet Resources tab and on the Law Library’s Electronic Resources List.

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