A Guide to Federal Legislative Tracking Software
Even as the makeup of Congress and the balance of power on Capitol Hill regularly shift, those working in lobbying and public affairs must continue to find ways to deliver results for stakeholders – ranging from building relationships with specific decision-makers to tracking legislation to influence policy outcomes.
Today, the savviest professionals in the field use public affairs software to help them achieve their policy goals. Below, we share best practices for tracking federal legislation and how federal bill tracking software can help you work more effectively and efficiently, stay up to speed, and execute a proactive federal public affairs strategy.
Why track congressional legislation?
Tracking federal legislation helps government affairs professionals understand the pathway, timeline, and likelihood of a bill being passed into law. This helps them anticipate changes to the law that may affect their clients or stakeholders so they can advocate on their behalf for specific policy outcomes and prepare for coming legislative or regulatory changes.
Even though thousands of bills are introduced during each legislative session, on average only about 6% of proposed legislation is passed into law. In fact, only 27 bills were passed through both chambers of Congress in 2023 – a record low – as control was divided between the parties.
Unified Republican control of Congress and the White House, and big issues on the agenda, will drive more activity in 2025. Given the low probability of an individual bill becoming law, public affairs professionals must be proactive and strategic with how they engage in advocacy.
How to track bills through Congress
Given the volume of pending legislation at any given time, manually tracking each bill’s status, committee markups, and political support can become difficult, especially for professionals who work on multiple policy issues. Plus, full-text searching on nonoptimized federal government websites can surface irrelevant results that require more time to review and leave professionals at risk of missing important information.
Instead, many public affairs professionals use federal bill tracking software as a more sophisticated approach to staying up to date on federal legislation and related communications. These congressional bill trackers may include automated monitoring and alerts of related news and actions; they also can include resources to help users identify and contact policy makers.
How can you determine the status of a bill?
There are a few ways to determine the status of a bill in Congress, including by using the free online resources from both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. For example, congress.gov provides both historical and current legislative information, searchable by details including the legislation status.
For a more streamlined experience, you can use federal bill tracking software to stay current on the status of pending legislation with real-time notifications of status changes, bill summaries, markups, and text comparisons.
How to use software to improve legislative tracking
An automated legislative and regulatory tracking tool makes it easy to keep tabs on congressional developments, understand potential impacts on stakeholders, and make informed strategic decisions.
Congressional bill tracking tools are most effective when used as part of a comprehensive public affairs strategy. Here’s how Bloomberg Government’s comprehensive government affairs intelligence platform helps you capitalize on legislative tracking intelligence to grow your influence and champion policy change.
Save time on legislative research
When balancing multiple stakeholders or policy areas, public affairs professionals may not have the capacity for long consultations with policy experts, especially during busy stretches of congressional activity. Instead, they need to-the-point data and actionable insights into complex policy issues.
Legislative tracking tools support informed decision-making – particularly under tight time constraints. When paired with concise bill summary and analysis tools, trustworthy news about the latest developments, and direct contact information for key policy makers and their staff, public affairs professionals can spend less time gathering the critical information they need to influence policy, so they can spend more time building strong relationships and pursuing long-term policy strategies.
Stay ahead of policy developments
Government affairs professionals must be one step ahead when it comes to anticipating policy developments in Congress. Once a policy proposal has gained political momentum, it’s much harder to influence or reverse its course. Instead of playing defense, savvy professionals shape the contours of a bill during the early drafting or negotiation stages, while there’s still time to impact its direction.
That’s why awareness of political trends and regulatory developments is crucial. By staying ahead of the curve, public affairs professionals can proactively engage with stakeholders to help steer legislation in a way that aligns with their objectives, rather than reacting to a policy proposal that’s already set in motion. Bloomberg Government’s legislative tracking tools enable public affairs professionals to keep track of what’s driving developing policy issues, anticipate regulatory changes and risks, and access the right sources of information to support meaningful conversations with decision-makers.
Improve efficiency and effectiveness
The demand on public affairs professionals to remain agile, informed, and effective has never been greater. The right legislative tracking tool can help government affairs teams get ahead of anticipated policy changes – and when paired with productivity-enhancing collaboration tools, helps them operate like a well-oiled machine to deliver the best value to their clients and organizations.
Bloomberg Government’s integrated public affairs software is designed to help teams be as efficient as possible, with purpose-built tools to complete core responsibilities faster, including:
- Outreach tools to send personalized, perfectly timed campaign messages to your team, stakeholders, and policy makers
- Real-time file-sharing and communication tools to manage stakeholder relationships and meetings
- Intelligent reports and ready-made presentations to easily share policy and strategy
Transform your approach to government affairs with Bloomberg Government
In today’s dynamic political environment, the right public affairs software is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and executing a winning public affairs strategy. Bloomberg Government’s all-in-one platform makes legislative bill tracking easy with real-time alerts, actionable intelligence, and customizable tools to monitor, analyze, and act on legislative developments in Congress.
See how public affairs professionals save hours every week by streamlining their workflows with Bloomberg Government.
Request a demo to discover how Bloomberg Government’s innovative platform can enhance your government affairs strategy and deliver meaningful results.