Connecticut State Library with state seal

Guide to Connecticut Legislative History

CSL Law/Legislative Reference Unit | Judicial Branch Law Libraries | General Assembly Legislative Search page | Landmark Legislative Histories

Search for Legislative History by Act Number / Bill Number

Find the page numbers of legislative histories for public acts from the 1986 session to the present. Type in either the complete or ending digits of the public act number (ex. 08-145) OR the bill number (ex. 5001).

Enter either Act Number or Bill Number  

 

There are three types of legislative history documents that relate to each act passed by the Connecticut General Assembly:

  1. House of Representatives proceedings
  2. Senate proceedings
  3. Public hearing transcripts

Citation Format

Legislative history documents are available from the following four sources:

1. Connecticut State Library, Law/Legislative Reference Unit
Complete legislative histories begin with acts passed in 1953. Transcripts for public hearings prior to this year are also available for some committees.
Photocopies may be ordered by telephone at 860-757-6590 (see: Hours & Closed Dates)
The requester must identify the year and act number or bill number for each legislative history ordered.
The photocopy charge is $.25/page, plus postage and handling.
Orders over 400 pages must be pre-paid.
Self-service photocopiers are available at the Library. The cost is $.10/page with vendacard, and $.15/page with coin. Staff do not make change.

 Legislative history information for Connecticut Constitutional Amendments adopted between 1965 and 2005.

2. Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries
Legislative histories for acts passed from 1980 to the present are available on microfiche in the Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Libraries.
These microfiche are duplicates of the State Library material. Microfiche reader-printers are available in all of the branch law libraries.

3. Connecticut General Assembly Legislative Search page
The Connecticut General Assembly search page offers full-text House and Senate transcripts and Committee Public Hearings from 1988 to the present online.
The Judicial Branch Law Libraries website offers a step-by-step tutorial on how to effectively search for this material.

* However, please be aware that the online versions do not include added testimony for the public hearings. Also, official pagination is NOT included for transcript and public hearing pages, and the pages aren't indexed or corrected for missing or mistyped bill numbers.

4. Connecticut State Library Landmark Legislative Histories
A series of compiled legislative histories on landmark Connecticut legislation, with additional primary source material, act summaries, and glossary of terms. Each set includes the complete official transcripts of the Connecticut General Assembly House and Senate debate and the Connecticut Joint Standing Committee public hearings.  The volumes also contain primary source material from the Permanent Bill File Archive and the State Document Collection.  They may be borrowed by visiting on-site or through Interlibrary Loan.
Now available for circulation:

Prepared by the Law and Legislative Reference Unit, Connecticut State Library.
Last Revised May 2010