California Legislative History Research: Hearings & Reports

Look in Journal Appendix

Some reports from 1849 to 1970 were published in an Appendix to the Senate and Assembly Journals:

• print (Stacks KFC5), look for Appendix following the bills for each year
• online (1855-1931) as listed by San Francisco Public Library (links to Internet Archive)
• check Index to Reports Published in the Appendices to the Journals of the California Legislature, 1905-1970 for titles and year/volume locations of reports, indexed by subject or authoring agency

Search the Law Library Catalog

To see if the Law Library has any hearings or reports that pertain to a bill, try advanced search—

• hearings by a committee noted in the Bill History

search Author field for Phrase: California. Legislature. Senate [or Assembly]
AND Author field for All words: committee judiciary [term from committee name]

• hearings by and reports by or submitted to a committee listed in the Bill History

search All fields for All words: California Senate [or Assembly] committee transportation [term from committee name]
AND All fields for Any words: report hearing 

Add limits to narrow down

Date: hearings are often held a year or two before a bill is introduced, so use date limits several years before and after the date of the bill.

Topic words: "+ Add new line" to the search template, and add to your search ...

• in All fields: general topic terms such as AND environment* ... medical ... housing [etc.]
• in Title: terms expected in the hearing title

Check Assembly File Analysis collection (1975-2002 only)

Prepared by the Assembly Office of Research, this nonpartisan analysis of each bill may include committee digest, comments, fiscal effect, and amendments. Frequently, this will be the only place to find committee reports, and only covers bills from 1975-2002, only available in microfiche (Micro Room, LL205, Case L, Drawer 2).

To find specific titles/dates for searching the Law Library Catalog (by Title, use "contains exact phrase") :

• (1849-1904) Index of Economic Material in documents of the States of the United States: California (in print at Doe Reference, AS32 .C3 v.85:D)
• (1850-1936) List of Special Committees and Commissions by Legislative Session (Reference Desk, KFC20 .L37)
• (1937-1971) California Interim Legislative Committees and Their Reports (Stacks KFC723 .A835)
• (1945-present) California State Publications: Monthly and cumulated years
  • (1945-1980) in print (Stacks KFC1 .C33)
  • (1982-2000) on microfiche (LL205, Case I, Drawer 3, filed by call number KFC1 .C33)
  • (2001-current) hearings and reports cataloged at the California State Library's CSP site (after selecting year or month to view in "catalog view", try adding legislature committee senate [or Assembly]  to the simple search to narrow down to state publications that were authored by or submitted to a legislative committee)
• (1961-1984) Hearings and Reports of Committees of the California Legislature (Stacks KFC723 .A84)
• (1985-1989) Joint Publications Catalog (in print at Doe Reference, JK8731 .A423)

Law Library Catalog:

Books + Articles