Reference Tip: Bulletin of Committee Work vs. the Legislative Record

At the State Library, Massachusetts legislative history assistance is one of our top research requests. Conducting a Massachusetts legislative history is a journey; sometimes you hit a gold mine (hearing transcripts, committee files, an actual written report) and sometimes you find the bare bones (bills and journals). And most often it is the latter scenario. However, the basic resources are the starting point; they give the framework for tracing the action of a bill through the legislature and open up key research access points (session dates, petitioner names, committee information).

The State Library has these key resources in print and digital - House and Senate Journals, Legislative Documents volumes, the Bulletin of Committee Work and its companion volume the Legislative Record.* Per our legislative history guide, the Bulletin of Committee Work and Legislative Record provide bill information and short bill histories for the years 1907-2000. While it may seem like these are two different sets; the information they contain is the same, the difference lies within their organization.

From 1907-1977, the Bulletin of Committee Work and the Legislative Record were combined into one physical volume. The Bulletin is in the front half and the Legislative Record is found in the second half of the volume. Starting in 1978, the titles were separated into two individual volumes. The Legislative Record physically looks different; the pages are landscape. As noted previously, the information contained in these volumes is the same, it is just a matter of how an individual prefers to research legislation/what information they already have.

Bulletin of Committee Work: As the title suggests, the Bulletin content is compiled and organized alphabetically by committee. The Bulletin provides general overview information such as committee member lists, room number for the committee within the State House, and the days on which the committee met. For bill information, bills that were referred to the committees are listed numerically by bill number (Senate followed by House) with the Subject (short description), Hearing Date, and Report. Report meaning the last action of the committee - this could be the next bill version, discharge to another committee, withdrawn, moved to the next annual session, etc.

Legislative Record: This resource is organized by bill number. Think of it as a giant listing of all Senate bills followed by all House bills for each session. Researchers should use the Legislative Record once they have identified the bill number they are interested in. The Legislative Record provides a short bill history (same as what you would find in the Bill History section of the journals).

While bill histories are succinct, they provide the key research access points: date of a public hearing, bill number of a new draft, committee name, etc. You take this information and then move on! Take that public hearing date and search Boston Globe articles and SHNS articles and see if the hearing was reported on. You can view all versions of the bill in the library's digital repository and find their subsequent bill histories. You take the committee information and see if the committee hearing files or legislative files are at the State Archives (see example).

Additional sections: The volumes contain a subject Index and an Acts list. Both great for quickly identifying a bill number. The earlier volumes also contain Orders, Resolves, and list Public Documents issued during each session.


The Bulletin of Committee Work and the Legislative Record can be found in the library’s third floor reading room. Please contact the Reference Department with questions reference.deparmtent@mass.gov.


April Pascucci
Legislative Reference Librarian

*House and Senate Journals and Legislative Documents available digitally.