Since June 2004, West has been compiling state legislative history databases that include the legislative history databases (XX-LH, XX-LH-REP), bill text and bill tracking databases (XX-BILLTXT, XX-BILLTRK-OLD), and session law databases (XX-LEGIS, XX-LEGIS-OLD).

There are up to five different types of documents that can also be retrieved including legislative journals (XX-LH-JRNLS); messages from governors (XX-LH-MSG); transcripts of hearings and debates (XX-LH-TMY); status reports and history of bills (XX-LH-REP); and voting records (XX-LH-VOTES). Not all of the documents are available for every state so it depends on what documents are produced by the state.

In addition to the individual state databases, there are also six multiple databases that allow you to search all of the states at one time. The databases are STATE-LH, STATE-LH-JRNLS, STATE-LH-MSG, STATE-LH-REP, STATE-LH-TMY, and STATE-LH-VOTES.

To use a specific state database, just replace the XX with the state code. Currently, there are approximately 24 states with legislative history databases: AZ, CA, CT, CO, FL, IL, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI.