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History of Bills: Search Tips

Sample Searches | Catalog of Congressional Bills | Identification Codes

The following sample searches are provided as guides to general types of searches in the History of Bills. They are performed in the 1998 History of Bills database. For the sake of space, only the top three hits in each results list are included with each example below.

Note: The results of these sample searches are described as they appear on the Web interface. The display of the results may vary for users of the WAIS client and SWAIS software.

Subject | Sponsor or Co-Sponsor | Bill Number | Report Number | Public Law Number

Sample Searches (5)

1. Search by Subject

This type of search returns listings for bills that are related to a specific subject. The word(s) that you enter as your search term(s) may appear anywhere within the document. Keep in mind, however, that History of Bills documents are brief, so the subject keyword(s) would have to appear in the title or short summary of a bill for your search to be successful.

Query:	"national parks"
Results:	hob98 S. 268--A bill to regulate flights over national parks, and for other purposes
	hob98 S. 1967--A bill to provide for mass transportation in national parks
	hob98 H.R. 4268--A bill to amend title 49, United States Code, to regulate overflights of National Parks

2. Search by Sponsor or Cosponsor

This type of search returns listings based on the name of a sponsor or cosponsor of a bill. Because a Member of Congress is identified as Mr., Mrs., or Ms. in the Congressional Record, your query should include only his/her last name.

Query:	Ensign
Results:	hob98 H.R. 4202--A bill to amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service
	hob98 H. Res. 379--A resolution returning to the Senate the bill S. 104.
	hob98 H.R. 3593--A bill to improve the ability of small businesses, Federal

3. Search by Bill Number

This type of search returns listings based on a given bill number. The bill number may be typed with or without punctuation. If no punctuation is used, you must leave a space between the h and the r for bills in the House.

Query:	"h.r. 2070"
Results:	hob98 H.R. 2070--A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide

4. Search by Report Number

This type of search returns listings based on a given report number. The word "report" should be abbreviated as "rept." in your query when you are searching in the History of Bills databases. The report number may be typed with or without punctuation. If no punctuation is used, you must leave a space between the h or s and "rept." for reports in the House or Senate, respectively.

Query:	"s. rept. 105-249"
Results:	hob98 S. 2307--An original bill making appropriations for the Department of Transportation

5. Search by Public Law Number

This type of search returns listings based on a given public law number. The phrase "public law" should not be abbreviated in your query when you are searching in the History of Bills databases.

Query:	"public law 105-217"
Results:	hob98 H.R. 39--A bill to reauthorize the African Elephant Conservation Act;

Catalog of Available Bills

To view a catalog of History of Bills documents that are available via GPO Access, click on the "submit" button on the search page without having entered any query terms and then select the appropriate document from the results list. A catalog will be retrieved for any year of the History of Bills that is highlighted in the scroll box on the search page.

Identification Codes

In the list that displays your query results, the bill number and title of each History of Bills document are preceded by an identification code. The identification code contains two elements: a database abbreviation and the year of the index. For example, in the identification code "hob97," "hob" stands for History of Bills, and 97 is the year of that index (1997).

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Last updated: March 20, 2006
Page Name: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/hob/tips.html