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Congress and law making: Researching the legislative process
Government PublicationsReview, Vol. IA, pp. 361-374, 1980 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.
01%-335X/80/040361-14$02.00/0 Copyright 0 1980 Pergamon Press
BOOK RJZVIEJVS DAVID HEISSER Documents Librarian, We&l Library, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, U.S.A.
Congress and Law Making: Researching the Legislative Process. By Robert Goehlert. Barbara, Calif.: Clio Books, 1979. 168 p. $17.50. ISBN O-87436-294-6. LC 79-11554.
Santa
‘This guide is designed to help users trace congressional legislation and to familiarize them with the major sources of information about Congress. It provides a basic introduction to the tools of research and how they can be used to gain better insight into Congress and how it works.” That introductory statement leaves it unclear whether the book’s aim is to describe publications or to explain how to study Congress through published sources, and the focus does indeed shift back and forth. Chapters on the legislative process and tracing legislation consider the kinds of information contained in the documents generated by enactment of a law, as well as the forms of publlcation and the relevant indexes. Chapters headed “Researching Congress” and “Researching Legislators” are simply lists of materials, sometimes with annotations and sometimes without. Publications covered in the lists include Congressional Quarterly and its many spinoffs, selected political science and public affairs journals and the relevant indexes, and a congeries of directories, statistical compendia and bibliographies. The material is similar to that found in other guides covering a comparable range of subject matter-Brock, Holler, and Vose come immediately to mind. The chapters dealing with legislative tracing are more ambitious, and attempt to show how documents reflect the phases in consideration of a bill, and thus how they can be fitted together to reconstruct the history of congressional action. This is well done on the whole, although it would be improved substantially by more extensive consideration of the numerous alternatives that are presented. For example, six sources of legislative history are mentioned (C1S Index, Daily Digest, U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, Statutes at Large, Digest of Public General Bills, slip laws) and a page is reproduced from each showing the legislative history of the Privacy Act of 1974. A really alert reader can observe that only CIS Index includes hearings as part of legislative history, but the author does not make the point. Yet in order to search intelligently, it is necessary to understand that the term “legislative history” is a fluid one, varying in specific meaning with the purpose of the investigation. The author should not assume that inexperienced researchers will automatically take that into account without being reminded. Another example of a good idea that says too little is a table entitled “Guides to Congressional Action.” This shows the steps in the legislative process (bill introduced and referred, committee holds hearings, etc.) and at each step lists between five and eleven publications that are sources of relevant information. This could serve as a clear guide and checklist for the bill tracer, but it cries out for explanation-some way for the reader to tell whether all eleven sources listed under “veto,” for example, will tell him the same things about a veto (they won’t), and how to choose among them. A blanket statement on page 1 that “when bibliographic citations are not arranged in alphabetical order, the entries are listed according to their usefulness,” doesn’t quite do it. The author concludes by saying, “After having examined and applied the tools of legislative tracing, the researcher can decide for himself which reference would best fulfill his needs and with which he feels most comfortable. Each tool has advantages . . . ” It seems legitimate to comment that guides such as this only exist to provide researchers with an alternative to finding out for themselves. 361
362
Book reviews
My main impression of the book is that it is unfinished-that a promising but slim guide to legislative tracing was hastily fleshed out with a miscellany of related material, with no time for criticism, revision and editing. Thus the subject of congressional oversight is tacked on to the end of the legislative tracing chapter by means of brief identification of the General Accounting and Congressional Budget Offices, and citation of GAO Review, GAO Congressional Sourcebook, and CBO cost estimates for implementation legislation. Under “Researching Congress” there is an unannotated list of 22 periodicals that “regularly include articles about Congress,” including titles as disparate as The American Political Science Review, and Congressional Digest, and a list of 15 indexes ranging from The Federal Index to SKI, and nothing is said about the diverse character of these materials or the diverse purposes for which they are suited. There are repeated instances of confusing presentations which could have been corrected by careful editing. For example, the description of hearings starts out, “Hearings are designated by an alphanumeric notation known as the SUDOCS (Superintendent of Documents) class number. These contain the oral testimony and written materials submitted to committees of Congress. . . .” On the next page the cover of a hearing is reproduced as an illustration, but no “alphanumeric notation” is visible. Another example: The annotation for a compendium of election statistics reads “Data on the election of representatives is [sic] compiled on a statewide aggregate basis. Election data for representatives is not broken down by congressional district, which is a serious drawback.” That seems to be saying that votes for individual candidates are not given, but I am not completely sure. There is a good deal of slipshod language (“The key to legislative tracing is attaining a bill’s or statute’s number”; “I have not discussed every available reference work, and have only briefly mentioned others”) again suggesting lack of editorial attention. Finally, the book is blatantly padded. Of its 168 pages, 54 are given over to a list of depository libraries, even though the text instructs the reader to find that information in the most recent September issue of the Monthly Catalog. There is a five-page list of names and addresses of research centers, followed by citation‘of two directories said to list most of them. There are 16 pages of illustrations showing examples of bills and the like, three blank pages, and a lo-page index. That leaves about 80 pages of actual text-half the book. This book has some of the makings of a useful guide to a highly significant and interesting area of research, but it still needs a lot of hard work. THELMA FREIDES SUNY College at Purchase Purchase, New York 10577, U.S.A.
Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1979. 1022 p. $65.00 ISBN O-87187-184-X. LC 79-20210. Congressional Quarterly’s new Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court belongs in the reference collection of every public, legal and academic library in the country. While many fine bibliographies and biographical dictionaries and directories of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary are available, till now there has been no overall reference guide to the Supreme Court. In addition to being well-organized and clearly written, the format and design of the volume make this reference work both attractive, a joy to read, and easy to use. The Guide is the most comprehensive reference work on the Supreme Court. The publication covers the history and development of the Court, its relationship with the Congress, president, states and the individual. The section on the “Court at Work,” in which the procedures and operations of the Court are presented, will be especially useful to students. Congressional Quarterly has succeeded in making the complexities and intricacies of the Court understandable. Scholars and legal experts alike have lauded the publication of the Guide; and the praise is indeed well-deserved. The Guide is an intelligently compiled reference work; it is accurate, welldocumented, and unrivaled in its scope and detail. As a research tool the Guide is indispensable, and truly unparagoned in its field. Though the Guide is undoubtedly an extraordinary reference work, it is not without some minor weaknesses. First, while the Guide contains both a detailed Subject Index and Case Index, it is difficult to cross-reference particular cases with the opinions of specific justices. It would have
01%-335X/80/040361-14$02.00/0 Copyright 0 1980 Pergamon Press
BOOK RJZVIEJVS DAVID HEISSER Documents Librarian, We&l Library, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, U.S.A.
Congress and Law Making: Researching the Legislative Process. By Robert Goehlert. Barbara, Calif.: Clio Books, 1979. 168 p. $17.50. ISBN O-87436-294-6. LC 79-11554.
Santa
‘This guide is designed to help users trace congressional legislation and to familiarize them with the major sources of information about Congress. It provides a basic introduction to the tools of research and how they can be used to gain better insight into Congress and how it works.” That introductory statement leaves it unclear whether the book’s aim is to describe publications or to explain how to study Congress through published sources, and the focus does indeed shift back and forth. Chapters on the legislative process and tracing legislation consider the kinds of information contained in the documents generated by enactment of a law, as well as the forms of publlcation and the relevant indexes. Chapters headed “Researching Congress” and “Researching Legislators” are simply lists of materials, sometimes with annotations and sometimes without. Publications covered in the lists include Congressional Quarterly and its many spinoffs, selected political science and public affairs journals and the relevant indexes, and a congeries of directories, statistical compendia and bibliographies. The material is similar to that found in other guides covering a comparable range of subject matter-Brock, Holler, and Vose come immediately to mind. The chapters dealing with legislative tracing are more ambitious, and attempt to show how documents reflect the phases in consideration of a bill, and thus how they can be fitted together to reconstruct the history of congressional action. This is well done on the whole, although it would be improved substantially by more extensive consideration of the numerous alternatives that are presented. For example, six sources of legislative history are mentioned (C1S Index, Daily Digest, U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, Statutes at Large, Digest of Public General Bills, slip laws) and a page is reproduced from each showing the legislative history of the Privacy Act of 1974. A really alert reader can observe that only CIS Index includes hearings as part of legislative history, but the author does not make the point. Yet in order to search intelligently, it is necessary to understand that the term “legislative history” is a fluid one, varying in specific meaning with the purpose of the investigation. The author should not assume that inexperienced researchers will automatically take that into account without being reminded. Another example of a good idea that says too little is a table entitled “Guides to Congressional Action.” This shows the steps in the legislative process (bill introduced and referred, committee holds hearings, etc.) and at each step lists between five and eleven publications that are sources of relevant information. This could serve as a clear guide and checklist for the bill tracer, but it cries out for explanation-some way for the reader to tell whether all eleven sources listed under “veto,” for example, will tell him the same things about a veto (they won’t), and how to choose among them. A blanket statement on page 1 that “when bibliographic citations are not arranged in alphabetical order, the entries are listed according to their usefulness,” doesn’t quite do it. The author concludes by saying, “After having examined and applied the tools of legislative tracing, the researcher can decide for himself which reference would best fulfill his needs and with which he feels most comfortable. Each tool has advantages . . . ” It seems legitimate to comment that guides such as this only exist to provide researchers with an alternative to finding out for themselves. 361
362
Book reviews
My main impression of the book is that it is unfinished-that a promising but slim guide to legislative tracing was hastily fleshed out with a miscellany of related material, with no time for criticism, revision and editing. Thus the subject of congressional oversight is tacked on to the end of the legislative tracing chapter by means of brief identification of the General Accounting and Congressional Budget Offices, and citation of GAO Review, GAO Congressional Sourcebook, and CBO cost estimates for implementation legislation. Under “Researching Congress” there is an unannotated list of 22 periodicals that “regularly include articles about Congress,” including titles as disparate as The American Political Science Review, and Congressional Digest, and a list of 15 indexes ranging from The Federal Index to SKI, and nothing is said about the diverse character of these materials or the diverse purposes for which they are suited. There are repeated instances of confusing presentations which could have been corrected by careful editing. For example, the description of hearings starts out, “Hearings are designated by an alphanumeric notation known as the SUDOCS (Superintendent of Documents) class number. These contain the oral testimony and written materials submitted to committees of Congress. . . .” On the next page the cover of a hearing is reproduced as an illustration, but no “alphanumeric notation” is visible. Another example: The annotation for a compendium of election statistics reads “Data on the election of representatives is [sic] compiled on a statewide aggregate basis. Election data for representatives is not broken down by congressional district, which is a serious drawback.” That seems to be saying that votes for individual candidates are not given, but I am not completely sure. There is a good deal of slipshod language (“The key to legislative tracing is attaining a bill’s or statute’s number”; “I have not discussed every available reference work, and have only briefly mentioned others”) again suggesting lack of editorial attention. Finally, the book is blatantly padded. Of its 168 pages, 54 are given over to a list of depository libraries, even though the text instructs the reader to find that information in the most recent September issue of the Monthly Catalog. There is a five-page list of names and addresses of research centers, followed by citation‘of two directories said to list most of them. There are 16 pages of illustrations showing examples of bills and the like, three blank pages, and a lo-page index. That leaves about 80 pages of actual text-half the book. This book has some of the makings of a useful guide to a highly significant and interesting area of research, but it still needs a lot of hard work. THELMA FREIDES SUNY College at Purchase Purchase, New York 10577, U.S.A.
Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1979. 1022 p. $65.00 ISBN O-87187-184-X. LC 79-20210. Congressional Quarterly’s new Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court belongs in the reference collection of every public, legal and academic library in the country. While many fine bibliographies and biographical dictionaries and directories of the Supreme Court and federal judiciary are available, till now there has been no overall reference guide to the Supreme Court. In addition to being well-organized and clearly written, the format and design of the volume make this reference work both attractive, a joy to read, and easy to use. The Guide is the most comprehensive reference work on the Supreme Court. The publication covers the history and development of the Court, its relationship with the Congress, president, states and the individual. The section on the “Court at Work,” in which the procedures and operations of the Court are presented, will be especially useful to students. Congressional Quarterly has succeeded in making the complexities and intricacies of the Court understandable. Scholars and legal experts alike have lauded the publication of the Guide; and the praise is indeed well-deserved. The Guide is an intelligently compiled reference work; it is accurate, welldocumented, and unrivaled in its scope and detail. As a research tool the Guide is indispensable, and truly unparagoned in its field. Though the Guide is undoubtedly an extraordinary reference work, it is not without some minor weaknesses. First, while the Guide contains both a detailed Subject Index and Case Index, it is difficult to cross-reference particular cases with the opinions of specific justices. It would have