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The staff of the Legislative Reference Library can guide you through the process of looking for legislative intent and assist you in obtaining useful materials. Our goal is to provide our clients with a helpful starting point. Our research is not intended to be exhaustive, however, and our assistance does not constitute legal advice.
Legislative histories in Texas are not already written; they must be compiled by the individual researcher from many materials. The basic steps in researching legislative intent follow. Much of this information is available in Adobe® PDF format from our brochure, Compiling Texas Legislative History.
Reviewing The Legislative Process in Texas on Texas Legislature Online may assist in understanding the contents of a bill file. An average legislative history requires several hours to research and prepare. While the Legislative Reference Library is unable to provide this service for the public, private firms specializing in this type of research can gather the pertinent materials for you, transcribe and analyze their content, and summarize the evidence in a detailed report. Researchers who wish to acquire a comprehensive legislative history, rather than compiling and writing their own, are encouraged to contact a legislative intent research firm.
Click here for helpful phone numbers of legislative offices.
This guide is also available as a single-page HTML document.
If you are working from the subject of the legislation, Vernon's statute, or session law chapter number, begin with Step 1. If you are working from a bill number and session (or year), begin with Step 2.