Research Guides: Minnesota Law Research Guide: Legislative History & Bill Tracking

Bills & Bill Tracking

Bill Search & Status (Minnesota State Legislature)
From this page on the State Legislature's website users can access the text of current House and Senate bills and track a bill's progress and status in the legislative process. Users can also choose to receive email alerts on significant actions on bills they select by using MyBill, a personalized bill tracking feature (registration required). In addition to current bills, the text of bills from as early as the 79th Legislature (1995) are available. Additional information on researching MN House and Senate bills is also provided
Making Laws (Minnesota House Research Dept.)
Making Laws is a nine-part series that goes in-depth on the various steps of creating legislation by the Minnesota Legislature. Each work in the series discusses an aspect of the legislative process in detail. The first two works in the series describe the structure of the legislature and forms of action in the legislative body. The rest of the works in the series describe steps in the process of making laws, including passing bills, bicameral agreement, review by the governor, the committee system, committee proceedings, a bill on the floor, and making the budget.

Legislative History

The general goal of legislative history research is to find evidence of legislative intent for a particular statutory provision. It is a process of finding and examining evidence of legislative intent, such as statements made by legislators at various stages of the lawmaking process. It also involves tracking the progress of a pending bill through the legislative process.

For an introduction to the steps involved in researching Minnesota legislative history consult the following helpful guides:

Legislative History Materials in the Law Library

Session Laws & Statutes

Journals of the Minnesota Legislature

Use to identify sponsors of bills, committees assigned to review bills, and dates of floor proceedings in the House and Senate.

Journal of the House of the Representatives of Minnesota
Call Number: KFM5418 .M56x (Current session 1st fl. Primary; previous sessions 3rd fl.)
Online Access:
Minnesota House of Representatives Website (1994 - current)
Journal of the Senate.
Call Number: Law Library Primary KFM5418 .M562x (Current session 1st fl. Primary; previous sessions 3rd fl.)
Online Access:
Minnesota Senate website (1995/1996 - current)

Locating Legislative History Materials Outside the Law Library

To determine the location of other legislative history materials (online and in other formats) consult the following online guide from the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library:

Legislative History - Location of Materials
A guide to resources available from the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library and from the Minnesota Historical Society. Also provides information on fee based legislative history research services.