Photo by Mr. T in DC.

If you’ve ever got questions about legislation in D.C. — that which passed, and that which didn’t — the D.C. Council’s Legislative Information Management System is an invaluable tool.

Yesterday, the office of D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown announced that over 607,000 documents from the Council’s sessions dating back to 1989 had been scanned and digitized and are now fully searchable online. The new documents, from Council periods 8 through 12 (we’re currently in period 19), span the better part of a decade, and include legislative proposals from legislators past and present.

For example, if you’re curious what Councilmember Jack Evans’ (D-Ward 2) first legislative proposal was after he was elected to the council in 1991, it was a law that would allow police to seize cars used by and for prostitution. According to a committee report, prior laws had done little to stem the problem of prostitution across the city, and the crack-cocaine epidemic was only making it worse. (Parts of Logan Circle were noted as being particularly bad.) Evans’ proposal passed the Council and became law on May 7, 1993.

Brown also announced recently that a new D.C. Council website would go live in the coming weeks.