Bill to Second Chamber

In order to be introduced in the other house, a Congressperson must be recognized and announce the introduction of the bill. Sometimes, when a bill has passed in one house, it becomes known as an act; however, this term usually means a bill that has become law. Just as in the first house, the bill then is assigned to a committee. The Senate committees then study and either release or table the bill just like the House standing committees and vice versa.

• If bill goes from one chamber to the other:
  Bill keeps original number in both houses. Procedures and sources are repeated as above;
• If bills introduced in both houses:
  one bill substituted for another under Floor Action;
• If disagreement in versions of bill:
  conference committee called; see next step for a description of conference committee activity.

Generally, any summary of legislative activity on a bill that has been passed into law is called a "legislative history". However, there are also summaries for bills not yet (or never) passed. These summaries have no set label, but are usually called something like a "bill tracking report." There is often a good bit of overlap between the two types of publication, but they are not simply different names for the same thing. The tracking reports focus more on the details, while legislative histories take more of a "big-picture" approach.

Bill Status, History of Bills and Legislative Histories

= Top Pick

Bill Status
Coverage	Location
101st Cong. (1989) -	Thomas / U.S. Library of Congress.
93rd Cong. (1973) - 100th Cong. (1988)	Thomas / U.S. Library of Congress (Summaries only)
101st Cong. (1989) -	LexisNexis Congressional
History of Bills
The History of Bills and Resolutions is a section of the Congressional Record Index that provides information about all bills and resolutions introduced during that session of Congress. Entries for each bill include actions that are reported in the Congressional Record and reference issue and date and pages where the action is reported.
Coverage	Location
Vol. 129, 98th Cong. (1983) -	History of Bills / U.S. Government Printing Office
Vol. 1, 43rd Cong. (1873) -	History of Bills in Congressional Record Index TC Wilson Library Gov Pub (US Congress Serials) X 1.1:
Legislative Histories
Coverage	Location
91st Cong. (1969) - 100th Cong. (1988) (Citations only)	LexisNexis Congressional
	The citations retrieved from LexisNexis point to microfiche reprints that can be found using the CIS Collection Finder.
Varies	Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format / Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C.