Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel

John Q. Cannon, Director

Victoria Ashby, General Counsel

Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel

W210 State Capitol Complex

Salt Lake City, UT 84114

Phone: 801.538.1032

Legislative History Resources

The ease of researching legislative histories is highly dependent on the level of research required, from what perspective and how the research is approached, and the level of understanding the researcher has of Utah's legislative process, publications, and records jurisdiction. How to Research Legislative Histories is helpful for any beginner researching Utah's legislative histories or intent.

The Utah Legislature website posts bill drafting and research files and floor debates back to 1990 and interim committee histories back to 1986. The bill drafting and research files and interim committee histories through 1996 are imaged and are not arranged or searchable like those 1997-current. Committee audio is available from July 2005-current on each committee page or via the audio tab on the home page.

In addition to the filterable site search, legislative audits, 2006-current are available on the Legislative Auditor General pages and historical and current budgetary information may be found on the Legislative Fiscal Analyst pages.

Laws of Utah 1851-current (also referred to as Session Laws) are available from HeinOnline and the Utah Government Digital Library. If you have a chapter number for a given session, this resource will provide the bill number, bill text, sponsor(s), and effective date.

Listed below are some helpful links to resources that are commonly used in researching legislative histories.

Territorial laws, 1847-1888, are available online thanks to the J. Willard Marriott Library.

Codified laws, 1898-1943, available at Utah Government Digital Library:

Revised Statutes, 1898
Compiled Laws, 1907
Compiled Laws, 1917 Volume 1 | Volume 2
Revised Statutes, 1933
Utah Code Annotated, 1943 Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5 | Volume 6

Frequently requested resources available at the Research Center of the Utah State Archives and Utah State History, 300 South Rio Grande Street, SLC, UT, 801.533.3535, https://archives.utah.gov/research/guides/legislative.html:

Senate Floor Debates, 1965-1989
Senate Working Bills, 1896-current
House Floor Debates, 1957-1989
House Working Bills, 1896-current
Bill Drafting and Research Files, 1980-1989
Interim Committee Histories, 1967-current

Resources available at the Utah State Law Library, 450 South State Street, SLC, UT, 801.238.7990, http://www.utcourts.gov/lawlibrary:

Legislative History Resources - Official and Unofficial Sources