Legislative Files (1959-1976; 74 linear ft.) is the most important series for the study of specific pieces of legislation acted upon during Hart's eighteen years in the Senate, and includes correspondence (with constituents and colleagues) and memoranda.
There are five subseries within the Legislative Files: Bills, Legislation co-sponsored, Committees, Miscellaneous, and Correspondence with Members of Congress and other Public Officials. "Bills" is by far the largest subseries, consisting of fifty-five linear feet of materials. The first grouping of files within "Bills" is arranged alphabetically by broad subject headings (Agriculture, Education, Labor, etc.) and covers the years 1959-1962. Beginning in 1963, the Hart office adopted a yearly arrangement scheme for the series based upon Senate and House bill numbers. To use this portion of the files efficiently, the researcher will need to determine the House or Senate number of a piece of legislation (through the Digest of public general bills and resolutions available in the Documents Center of the University of Michigan Graduate Library or any Federal Repository Library.). The size of each legislative file varies with the amount of constituent mail it generated.
The other subseries within the Legislative Files are considerably smaller but not without substance. "Legislation co-sponsored" consists of communications between Hart and other members of the Senate regarding co-sponsorship of legislation. The files are divided between yes and no, and frequently include the rationale for his decision whether or not to co-sponsor a specific bill. The "Committees" subseries consists of Hart's working files from his different Senate committee assignments The size of the files for any given year varies with the level of power Hart exercised within the committee. Thus, the researcher will find considerably more information about the Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee and Environment Subcommittee because Hart served as chairman. The "Miscellaneous" subseries includes Hart's voting record within the Senate, information about the legislation Hart introduced or co-sponsored, and summaries of Hart's speeches and debates on the Senate floor as they appeared in the Congressional Record. The last subseries within Legislative Files has two parts: "Correspondence with members of Congress" and "Correspondence with government officials, organizations, and other public figures." Both sets of files are arranged alphabetically and include general types of communications (thank yous, requests, congratulations, etc.) as well as letters about legislation, politics, and the state of the nation. For the researcher interested in a specific public figure, this might be one place to begin, but always keeping in mind that correspondence with that individual might also be found elsewhere in the collection.
