A Guide to State Legislative Tracking Software
Government affairs professionals who lobby state governments often face unwieldy workloads, which can include tasks such as sifting through hundreds of bills, preparing written testimony for dozens of hearings, and tracking their lobbying activities for compliance purposes. Given the demands of the job, legislative tracking software can help these lobbying and public affairs professionals save time and more effectively engage with lawmakers and stakeholders to effect policy change.
Learn how Bloomberg Government’s comprehensive public affairs software makes it even easier to seamlessly track legislative trends, bill activity, and key players – even across multiple jurisdictions.
What is state legislation tracking?
State legislation tracking is the process of following the path of proposed legislation as it moves through a state’s legislative process to potentially become state law.
The legislative process can vary among the 50 states. In general, if a proposed bill moves out of committee it can be considered by state-level legislative chambers before going to the governor for review. But there are many moving parts and variables along that path that are specific to each state’s process and could affect the outcome, including public hearings and the potential introduction of amendments. Legislative tracking tools allow you to know exactly where a bill is in the process.
Why should government affairs professionals track legislation in multiple states?
With competing interests advocating for their own goals across 50 individual states, government affairs professionals must find ways to deliver results for their stakeholders, which can include influencing policies, shaping public opinion, and building relationships with key decision-makers. Tracking state legislation can help these government affairs professionals stay organized and more efficiently monitor and act on legislative developments.
Helping multistate actors navigate regulatory and compliance differences
Lobbying and public affairs professionals play important roles in shaping state policy as they represent their interests in debates ranging from taxation to environmental regulations. Tracking legislation across states can be important for helping clients and stakeholders prepare for forthcoming legislative or regulatory changes in the states where they operate and help them understand potential compliance impacts.
Tracking state legislation trends to forecast federal legislative changes
Multistate tracking is also essential for public affairs professionals working on national issues. State actions can have national effects. If similar legislation is passed in multiple states around the country, the U.S. Congress may be encouraged to adopt a similar or superseding federal bill.
Streamline your workflow with state legislation tracking tools
Staying informed about the status of state-level legislation can be a tedious process with many hurdles. And the volume of proposed legislation is even more vast: state legislators can consider more than 170,000 total bills each year – and only about 30,000 of these will become law across the 50 states.
State legislative websites
While it’s possible to review state websites to track legislative developments, there are certainly differences in how each state government presents legislative information and the keywords they use. This can make manual, full-text searches of individual state websites time-consuming, complicated, and prone to missing information.
State legislative tracking software
Given the number of bills proposed every year at the state level, many public affairs professionals use more sophisticated tracking tools to automate their monitoring of state legislative developments and reduce, or even eliminate, the time they spend on manual legislation searches.
With Bloomberg Government’s state legislative tracking tool, you can easily search for specific bills across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., to find plain language summaries and other essential information, including:
- Date the bill was introduced
- Bill sponsors and cosponsors
- Bill status in each respective legislative chamber
Key features of public affairs software for multistate legislative monitoring
Unlike relying on individual state government websites, state legislative tracking tools offer a unified view of policy developments across jurisdictions. When considering public affairs software, public affairs professionals should look for features that will streamline workflows and automate certain tasks to free up more time for the long-term strategic planning that your stakeholders value.
Below, we outline key features and capabilities of a state legislative tracking tool that will most effectively help to maximize your efficiency:
AI-powered state bill comparisons
Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), state bill comparison tools reduce the amount of time spent reading through individual bills. With Bloomberg Government’s tool, in one click you can cross-reference similar passages in bills from several jurisdictions and gain insight into policy positioning that you can then leverage when drafting legislation or crafting campaign messaging. You’ll quickly see what’s in progress, learn from past failures, and identify key talking points to gain support and influence legislative action.
Bill density map
Bloomberg Government’s interactive bill density map offers a geographic visual representation of related legislation. Simply hover over any state to see details about the legislative session, deadlines, and key elected officials involved with the bill.
For added context and collaboration, users can also track historical data on bills from previous legislative sessions and share all pertinent information with colleagues.
Legislative session timelines
Session timelines offer an easily digestible way to visually track state legislative calendars, including:
- Which state legislatures are in and out of session
- The length of each state legislative session
- Start dates for upcoming legislative sessions
With these timelines in one place, it’s much easier to plan outreach and engagement strategies, including travel to various state capitols to meet with key elected officials and stakeholders.
State congressional directories
State legislative directories make networking easier by providing contact information for state representatives and their key staffers. But modern public affairs professionals need more than just a yellow book published at the beginning of each new term. Instead, Bloomberg Government offers extensive directories of contact information that are updated daily, so you’ll always have the most accurate list of who’s who. Search our extensive database of key decision-makers for snapshots of their:
- Career history
- Voting record
- Political affiliation
- Email and office phone number
- Committee and caucus assignments
- Sponsored legislation
Maximize efficiency with Bloomberg Government’s legislative tracking tools
Legislative bill tracking can be a daunting task – especially for public affairs professionals working across multiple states. But the right public affairs software can help you work smarter and more effectively, with real-time insights, AI-powered analysis, and easy-to-navigate features that help you monitor, compare, and act on proposed legislation across all 50 states.
By automating tedious processes and centralizing critical information, Bloomberg Government empowers you to save time, stay organized, and focus on strategic engagement with lawmakers and stakeholders. Learn more about how public affairs professionals are already saving hours every week by streamlining their work with Bloomberg Government.
Request a demo to see how Bloomberg Government’s comprehensive public affairs platform can help you stay informed, save time, and craft an effective state lobbying or governmental affairs strategy.