About the Bill Text Feature
The Bill Text feature provides access to the entire text of all versions of all bills and resolutions introduced in Congress since 1989. These texts are not the official texts; only the copies actually printed by the Government Printing Office (GPO) are official.
Amendments are not searched as separate documents but are searched if written into a later version of the bill or passed as substitutes for the original bill. Texts are printed for all Senate amendments and for many House amendments in the Congressional Record and links to them can be found in Bill Summary & Status information for the bill.
Bill Text Search Help
| SEARCH BY: | WHAT IT FINDS: |
|---|---|
| Bill Number | one specific piece of legislation |
| Word/Phrase | legislation whose text contains the word(s) you provide |
| Date/Session | legislation received at the GPO on a given date (not date of introduction) or within a given time period |
| Words in Index | a list of words beginning with the word entered in the index to the Bill Text data base (or the nearest word if not found) with links to legislation containing the given words |
Search by Bill Number
If you know the number of the bill or resolution you are looking for, select the Bill Number radio button.
Each bill number begins with an alphabetic designation of the type of legislation and its chamber of origin and is completed by a sequence number.
There are 6 versions of Bill Number H.R.3295 for the 107th Congress
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Equal Protection of Voting Rights Act of 2002 (Engrossed Amendment as Agreed to by Senate)[H.R.3295.EAS]
- Help America Vote Act of 2001 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)[H.R.3295.EH]
- Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)[H.R.3295.ENR]
- Help America Vote Act of 2001 (Introduced in House)[H.R.3295.IH]
- Help America Vote Act of 2001 (Referred to Senate Committee after being Received from House)[H.R.3295.RFS]
- Help America Vote Act of 2001 (Reported in House)[H.R.3295.RH]
These prefixes may be in upper or lower case, with or without periods, and with or without spaces when entered in a THOMAS search box.
Further explanations of bill types may be found on the Senate Web site.
Search by Word/Phrase
It is not necessary to use quotation marks to indicate a phrase. For example, a user can enter national parks, not "national parks," to retrieve information about national parks.
A search on some words may not give you the results you expect. For instance, a search for death penalty would miss legislation that uses the term capital punishment instead. In forming your search, think of synonyms and other variations.
Limit by Date/Session
"Date" in this search does not mean the date the bill was introduced. It means the date the bill was received at the Library of Congress, which is usually a few days after introduction. The Date/Session search is available only from the 105th Congress forward.
