The complex was initially the home of the Batasang Pambansa, the former legislature of the Philippines which was established as an interim assembly in 1978 and finally as an official body in 1984.

The Senate, the upper house of Congress, does not meet in the Batasan, but in the GSIS Building across Metro Manila in Pasay.

In 1956, architect Federico S. Ilustre laid out the master plan for the location, which was set aside to be the new home of the Congress (made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives).

By that time, the 1973 constitution had replaced the bicameral Congress with the Batasang Pambansa, a unicameral parliament.

The numerically larger House of Representatives retained the session hall and offices of the old Batasang Pambansa on the grounds of the complex.

The smaller, newly reinstated Senate returned to the original legislative building in Manila (reinstated as capital city in 1976) and held their plenary sessions there until the building was turned over to the National Museum of the Philippines under the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos.

The Senate has since moved to the GSIS Building on reclaimed land on Manila Bay in Pasay, holding their plenary sessions there since May 1997.

Currently headquartered in the building are the Legislative Library, the Committee offices, the Reference and Research Bureau, and the Conference Rooms.

[9] In January 2025, Speaker Martin Romualdez led the opening ceremony of the Jose de Venecia Building and Museum.

The President's annual State of the Nation Address delivered to a joint session of Congress is one example of such a speech.