You can have an impact on how your government functions, but first, you need to know what they’re up to.
Most of the work any of us will be doing with our legislators–whether in your home state or in Congress–will be working with them to understand and guide bills that are being proposed. The only way to get in front of those conversations is to know what bills are being proposed, so you can start asking questions about what impact they’ll have and ultimately, how you want your legislator to act.
So how do you get in the know?
State Legislatures
The NCSL has a great list of links with what each state offers their citizens, from bill trackers to emails or news alerts. You can find that list HERE.
Your state legislators also likely send out emails and newsletters. Signing up for those can give you a heads up as well. Find your local legislators at Open States. If you click on your state at Open States, there is a handy list of recently proposed legislation, too!
Congress
Keeping track of what’s going on in Congress is a touch easier.
At GovTrack, you can sign up to get alerts HERE. You have several options including getting an alert when new legislation is proposed or up for debate.
At Countable, you can sign up HERE to get alerts when bills are close to a vote, and I like the feature that alerts me how my Representative or Senators ultimately vote on a bill.
For the House, you can check HERE for the daily schedule of the House, which lists bills that are being debated or suspended (fast-tracked).
You can find a basic calendar for the Senate HERE which lists the times that bills are being discussed or voted on.
If you have other favorite ways to stay on top of upcoming legislation, let us know in the comments!
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Very useful information! Thank you!
You’re welcome!
If you are ever interested in checking out state legislation, you might like BillTrack50. You can search your state, Congress, or all states at once for any topic you are interested in and see the status of all relevant bills and votes. Signing up is free and allows you to do as many searches and read as many bills as you like. We also have solid legislator contact info if you feel moved to reach out. https://www.billtrack50.com/register
I’ll check it out. Thanks!