Legislative History for Connecticut Public Acts

The official record of legislative history in Connecticut is comprised of House and Senate proceedings and Committee hearing transcripts. Transcript volumes are carefully indexed by Connecticut State Library staff and contain official pagination for citation, as well as written testimony submitted at committee public hearings. This material is used to determine the legislative intent behind Connecticut's current and historical laws.

If you don’t find it in our database, please contact us via email, phone or chat to place your order or visit us in person. This gives you the advantage of reading through material and determining what you really need. Please see our policy on scanning/photocopying.

• Complete House and Senate transcripts in our print collection begin in 1953. Public hearings extend further back to 1899 but some pre-1953 committees are unavailable.
• Our Digital Collection contains transcript volumes of select earlier years as well as 2008-present.
• All legislative history transcripts in both our print and digital collections can be legally cited and certified.
• Note: In 2018, only House, Senate, & several committee hearings were transcribed. Compiled histories marked with “not transcribed” means nothing is available.  Questions regarding this situation should contact Legislative Management at (860) 240 0100.

Connecticut Constitutional Amendment Legislative Histories

The table linked below contains the full-text legislative history for each constitutional amendment passed between 1965 and 2008, as well as other details like adoption date, vote totals, and section numbers amended.

Landmark Legislative Histories

Separately prepared volumes contain compiled legislative histories on select landmark Connecticut legislation.  In addition to the complete official transcripts, these volumes include:

• Act summaries
• Glossary of terms
• Relevant supporting material from the Permanent Bill File Archive and the State Documents Collection.

The library maintains files of every bill introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly since 1911.  Earliest years encompass final versions only while files beginning in the 1950s may include substitute versions, file copies, amendments, as well as supplementary material like fiscal notes & constituent letters.  From the 1980s through the early 2000s, bill files may contain added testimony not added to bound transcript volumes in our collection. Select years have been scanned and digitally archived. Beginning in 2023, these files will be preserved in digital format only.

*Please note that these documents are not paginated, indexed, and may not include submitted testimony. Submitted testimony for the public hearings is not available prior to 1999. The Connecticut Judicial Branch has a step-by-step tutorial on how to effectively search for the transcripts using the General Assembly's website.