Legislative History in Oregon

Compiling a legislative history requires a basic understanding of how the legislature producing the legislation functions. In Oregon, there are 30 members in the Senate and 60 members in the House, and legislative sessions are held every other year, though having annual sessions is regularly discussed and probably not far off. The minutes and audio tapes of legislative committee hearings, where proposed bills are discussed, form the largest part of a piece of legislation's history. These hearings explain the need for and the goals of the proposed legislation. A bill can be passed, passed with amendments, or not passed. A bill passed with amendments is referred to as "A-engrossed" while a bill amended a second time is referred to as "B-engrossed." A bill cannot be amended a third time; at that point, it dies. An "enrolled" bill has been passed by both chambers; the final version is signed into law by the Governor. The House and Senate Journals track these processes, and include votes of both the House and the Senate, as well as veto statements made by the governor.

For an attorney, legislative history can be important in determining what laws affected a client's situation at a given time as well as understanding the legislative intent behind a given statute. Bill tracking is distinctive from legislative history as research that follows a bill's path through the legislative process, where legislative history starts with a current statute and moves backwards to discover all related materials. Bill tracking can help an attorney keep track of new laws and amendments that affect a client's rights.

Following are the main types of documents created by the legislative process that could be compiled into a history. These materials are mostly available through the Oregon State Archives and more recently their website, and some materials can be found in various state, county, and academic law libraries. First are legislative committee minutes. These are not verbatim transcripts, but rather summaries of the proceedings; they are available on the Archive's website from 1991 forward. Committee and audio tapes provide verbatim recordings of the committee hearings, but can be difficult to follow who is speaking; this is where having the minutes available comes in handy. These recordings are available online from 1999 forward. Next, proposed amendments, written testimony, reports, and other submissions considered in the committee hearings are termed "exhibits," and cannot be found online, but are available in binders at the Archives and on microfilm in some law libraries. Original bill files are manila files at the Archives containing the original bill text, committee reports, financial impact statements, and vote tallies. Also included may be a staff analysis of the bill, providing a summary describing what issue the bill addresses, the purpose of the bill, and any amendments. Chamber debates are audio tapes of the House and Senate debates on a given bill. Finally, the House and Senate Journals record the actions of the chambers, with bill votes, explanations of votes, calendars, messages from the governor, etc.

A big help in sorting through all this documentary possibility is the entity known as a "tracing." These exist for laws that have already been researched by Archives staff by request, and are compilations of notes detailing relevant committees and whether and where any minutes, exhibits, audio tapes, etc, exist and can be found. Tracing or not, to begin compiling a legislative history starts out somewhat simply. Look up the statute in question in the ORS; at the end of the statute, the session law chapter/chapters will be noted. (Session laws are enacted laws, published in chronological order of enactment prior to being codified.) Next look up the session law, where the original bill number for the law can be found. This allows you to look up the legislative calendar in the House and Senate Journal (the bill number will begin with SB or HB, letting the researcher know which chamber's journal to peruse). From here, any existing tracings can be found, and committee hearing minutes and exhibits found on microfilm. For more recent years, both Westlaw and LexisNexis provide legislative history materials in addition to the State Archives and other resources.

Another thing to keep in mind in Oregon is legislation stemming from the initiative and referendum process, where voters can directly refer measures to the ballot to vote on and bypass the Oregon Legislature. The State Initiative and Referendum Manual is useful for understanding this process more in-depth; the Oregon Blue Book lists initiatives passed in given years.