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A Quick Research Guide to the Indian Child Welfare Act's Legislative History

A federal bill becomes a law by being (a) introduced by a member of Congress, (b) considered by congressional committees in its house of origin, (c) debated and amended on the floor of its house of origin, (d) passed by that house and transmitted to the other house, (e) considered by committees in the other house, (f) debated and amended on the floor of the other house, (f) passed by that house and returned, perhaps in an amended form, to its house of origin, (g) adjusted, if there are any differences between the House and Senate versions, either by the originating house's accepting the other's amendments or by the amending house's receding from its amendments, and (h) signed by the President, allowed by the President to become law without his signature, or vetoed by the President but with the veto overridden by Congress.

In the case of the Indian Child Welfare Act, S. 1214, the bill that eventually became law [Pub. L. No. 95-608], was introduced by Senator Abourezk, considered by the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, amended and passed by the Senate, considered by the House Interior Committee's subcommittee on Indian Affairs and Public Lands, amended on the House floor and passed; the Senate then agreed to the House's amendments, and President Carter signed it.

ICWA's principal legislative history consists of the text of various Indian child welfare bills, transcripts of hearings held on them, committee reports issued about them, and floor statements and debate concerning them.  Justice Scalia's complaints about legislative history notwithstanding [see, e.g., Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363, 388-91 (2000) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment)], these materials are particularly useful when the issue is whether Congress intended ICWA to apply to a particular situation or not.  If several witnesses complained at ICWA hearings about a specific problem, for example, it is easier to read ICWA as applying to that problem; on the other hand, if reports and hearings and sponsor statements are completely silent about an issue, it is easier to argue that ICWA doesn't apply.  Over the years, the Alaska Supreme Court has examined and interpreted ICWA's legislative history in about 13 of its decisions.

Unfortunately, much of this legislative history is not available online, and relatively little of it is reprinted in the U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News, the most widely available printed collection of legislative history materials.  However, most ICWA materials should be available in libraries that have a full set of Congressional Information Service (CIS) microfiches, plus at least a microfilm/microfiche collection of the Congressional Record.  The CIS fiches contain the text of ICWA bills, the printed ICWA hearings, and the ICWA committee reports; the Congressional Record contains statements by bills' sponsors and records of Congressional deliberations.  In Alaska, there are full CIS sets in Anchorage (Consortium Library and []), Fairbanks (Rasmuson Library), and Juneau (State Library), while there are Congressional Record materials at Consortium Library, [], and the State Library in Juneau.

Text of bills.  According to the LEXIS/CIS legislative history, the four ICWA-related bills introduced into Congress were S. 3777 (94^th Cong.), S. 1214 (95^th Cong.), S. 1928 (95^th Cong.) and H.R. 12533 (95^th Cong.) … but, as it turns out, S. 1928 was simply a Title IV-E bill that BIA and HEW were suggesting would take care of the problems ICWA addressed.  Copies of the various versions of each of these bills are available through the CIS system (but not online).  Don't be alarmed when you see that the fiche-compilers have messed up the first version of H.R. 12533 by substituting several pages from another bill.  If you go to the next version, you can spot the text of the previous version in the 'strikethrough section.'

Hearings.  The principal hearings, in 1974, 1977, and 1978, are available through the CIS system:

Indian Child Welfare Program, 93^rd Cong., 2d Sess. (1974), 1975 CIS S441-25

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1977, Hearing … on S. 1214, 95^th Cong., 1^st Sess. (1977), 1978 CIS S961-3

Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Hearing … on S. 1214, 95^th Cong, 2d Sess. (1978), 1981 [!] CIS H441-15

Committee reports.  The most important committee reports (the only committee reports?) are:

S. Rep. No. 95-597, 95^th Cong., 1^st Sess. (1977), available only through 1977 CIS S963-20

H. Rep. No. 95-608, 95^th Cong., 2d. Sess. (1978), reprinted in 1978 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 7530, 1978 CIS H443-53

Congressional Record.  Senator Abourezk made sponsor statements when introducing S. 3777 [122 Cong. Rec. 28094 (August 27, 1976)] and S. 1214 [123 Cong. Rec. 9994-998 (April 1, 1977)].  The Senate briefly debated S. 1214 before passing it [123 Cong. Rec. 37223-226 (November 4, 1977)].  Representative Udall's sponsor statement for H.R. 12533 is at 124 Cong. Rec. 12532-534 (May 3, 1978).  According to the LEXIS/CIS legislative history, H.R. 12533 was debated in and passed the House on October 14, 1978, but on that same day the House vacated this passage, substituted the text of H.R. 12533 for the text of S. 1214, and passed S. 1214, with the Senate concurring in the House amendments to S. 1214 the next day, October 15.  I am not quite sure that the House really passed H.R. 12533 and then vacated this, and the official record of the Senate action says it took place on October 14, not October 15, but, at any rate, the House's deliberations are at 124 Cong. Rec. 38101-112 (October 14, 1978), and the Senate's are at 124 Cong. Rec. 37537-540 (October 14, 1978).