After a bill is reported out of committee it is put on the calendar for consideration and debated by the entire House or Senate. Consideration will usually involve a discussion of the issues, possible amendments to the text of the proposal, and the vote on passage. After passage by one body, the bill must be considered by the other body, following procedures similar to those outlined above.

Frequently, to speed the legislative process, identical or similar bills may be considered simultaneously by each house. Regardless of how it is handled, for a bill to become a law it must pass both the House and the Senate with identical language. If this has not happened, a conference committee will be appointed to work out the differences between the two versions. The report of the conference committee is usually published as a House report, and the version of the bill worked out by the conference committee must again be considered by the full House and Senate and passed.

The full floor consideration of a bill and conference report, if necessary, are very important parts of a legislative history. Debate over a bill and the subsequent vote can be found in the Congressional Record. The date of the debate can be located in a variety of sources including the House Calendar, Congressional Index and CQ Weekly. You must use the Congressional Record Index to obtain the page of the debate and vote. The"'Daily Digest" section gives page numbers for debates on current legislation in the Record. Please note that the pagination differs between the daily edition and the later bound edition. Statements by a bill's sponsor or the chairman of the committee which reported the bill have the most weight regarding the bill's intent. To find debate and floor votes, reference the following:

Where can I locate the Congressional Record?

• Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of Congress. Government Documents collection, Level 1, 43rd Congress to present, 1873 to date, under SuDoc number X1.1:.
  The Library also has the predecessors to the Record, beginning with the Annals of Congress, 1st Congress, 1789.
  Every year has an index which is located at the end of the Record volumes for that year. Floor debates and votes are given in the text.
• LexisNexis Congressional (Emory only)
  Indexes and gives the fulltext of floor debates in the Congressional Record since 1985 by keyword, speaker, and year. You can also search by page number (for example, H2867 or S2876) and date. Florr votes are given in the text.
• THOMAS
  For debates, indexes Congressional Record using keyword, exact date and speaker since 1993. Floor votes are indexed since 1989. Roll call votes are given in a chart with the issue linked to full text and bill status to the text of the Congressional Record. Thomas is considered the best and most current public access source for full text.
• GPO Access
  Fulltext of the Congressional Record from 1994 to date. Searches the index of the Congressional Record from 1983 forward.
• Historical and Current Sources - Online and in Paper
• Century of American Lawmaking (Library of Congress)
  TIFF images of the following:
  *Journals of the Continental Congress (1774-93) - Paper copy in the stacks under J10 .A5, there is also an index
  *Annals of Congress (1789-1824) - Paper copy under X1.1, on Level 1, in Government Documents collection
  *Register of Debates (1824-1837) - Paper copy under X1.1, on Level 1, in Government Documents collection
  *Congressional Globe (1833-1873) - Paper copy under X1.1, on Level 1, in Government Documents collection
  *House and Senate Journals (1789-1873) - Paper copy in the Serial Set up to 1952; 1953 to date are located in Government Documents collection on Level 1, under call numbers XJH (House) and XJS (Senate).
  *Senate Executive Journal (1789-1873)
  *Journal of William Maclay (1789-91)
  Individual issues are browsable; search engine for entire collection rather than individual titles. William Maclay was one of the first two senators from Pennsylvania. He began a diary within two months of the first session, which he continued for almost daily for the three sessions of the First Congress. Because Senate sessions were closed to the public until 1795, his diary is one of the few accounts of Senate floor activity from the early Congresses.
• Documentary History of the First Federal Congress (University of South Carolina)
  1789 Congressional debates on the formation of the Cabinet, text of bills and notes from members of the first Congress
  
• Congressional Index , Commerce Clearing House, Reference KF49 .C6 - Has the dates that debate over certain bills occurred in Congress. Library has 1981 to 1998, 97th to 105th Congress.
  Congressional Quarterly Almanac - Currently known as CQ Almanac; 1948 to date - JK1 .C66, (Stacks) - Comprehensive, yearly summary of the activity and issues addressed by Congress. Provides voting information by bill for all Congressional members and text of important statements. Floor votes are indexed in the back of the volumes.
• CQ Weekly - formerly known as Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report
  Weekly periodical with quarterly indexes. Floor votes are in every issue and it is more current than the Almanac. Past issues are located in the Stacks under JK1 .C15; recent issues are in curent periodicals in the Matheson Reading Room.
  Also, electronically available under CQ Library (Emory only) under the Information Gateway (Emory only). Indexes floor votes since 1995 and you can search by keyword, date and chamber. It also provides a summary of the bill and votes by individual members.
• LexisNexis Congressional (Emory only)
  Under Members, find out how Congressional members voted on certain key bills, all bills and any floor statements made. From the 99th Congress
• House of Representatives Roll Call Votes - Office of the Clerk
• Senate Floor Votes - Senate Roll Call Votes - from101st Congress (1989)
• The C-SPAN Vote Search contains vote charts back to 1996. You can search for votes by subject matter, member name, party, chamber, vote number, or by month. For subject matter votes, C-SPAN does not provide a list of subject terms. The vote charts are broken down by yeas, nays, and not voting, and provide the Congressional Record vote number, the bill number and title, a very brief synopsis, and an overall vote tally. You can also find votes on current legislation and key votes.
• Project Vote Smart - Key votes from 1987 to the present on major issues