How do I find bills and search bill text?

Open Browse Bills under Bill Tracking in the left navigation. It lists the bills filed in your organization's state. Everyone on your staff can use it, whatever their role.

The search box

Type in the box at the top. It reads what you type two ways at once.

• As a bill number. Type it however you like: SB34, SB 34, s.b. 34 and sb0034 all find the same bill. A number on its own, like 34, finds every bill with that number (House, Senate and joint resolutions). Results update as you type, so sb3 already shows SB 3 and SB 30 through 39.
• As words. Every word you type must appear somewhere in the bill: its number, title, description, AI summary, a sponsor's name or one of its categories. Order does not matter, so tax property finds the same bills as property tax.

Exact bill-number matches come first, then bills with every word in the title, then the rest.

Quick filters

Under the search box you can narrow the list by category, chamber, party and sponsor. The Include row adds or removes resolutions, joint resolutions, passed bills and failed bills.

A few tips:

• Constitutional amendments are usually filed as joint resolutions. If you pick that category, tick Joint Resolutions to see them.
• In some states you will also see a box to show only placeholder bills (the name varies by state, for example shell bills or caption bills). It appears only where we can recognize them reliably.
• Clear all filters puts everything back.

Click View or a bill number to open the bill's page.

Advanced search

Click Advanced search to build a search out of conditions. The panel reads like a sentence: "Bills that match all (or any) of the following," then the session and the order.

Choose + Add a condition to add a row. The kinds of condition include:

• Words in the bill. Pick where to look (Title or summary, Bill text, Amendments or Anywhere) and how to match (contains any of, contains all of, contains none of or contains the exact phrase). Type a word or phrase and press Enter.
• Date filed, Chamber, Sponsor (with a choice of sponsor role), Type of bill, Category and Subject (the legislature's own index).
• Progress, such as reported out of committee, passed a chamber, signed or vetoed.
• Activity in a date range, such as any action, a hearing or calendar entry, an amendment filed or a new version of the text.
• Code section, to find bills that cite a section of your state's code. Type the section the way your state writes it.
• Our position, Our priority, Tracking (tracked by us or not) and In an issue portfolio. These use your organization's own tracked bills.

You can group conditions, for example "any of these words" inside "all of these conditions." Use Remove this condition or Remove this group to take one out.

The Session menu lets you search this session, every session, the whole legislature or one session you pick. In states whose legislature runs two years, a Carried over from last year button adds the conditions for bills filed in the first year that have moved since January 1.

How word matching works

• Words match exactly. tax does not match taxes. Click a word after you add it to also match words that start with it (it works on words of three letters or more).
• A search that relies only on "starts with" words shorter than four letters is refused as too broad. Add another word, or use a longer start.
• Several words typed together, or anything with punctuation like 501(c)(3), is treated as a phrase.

Paste a search

If you already have a search written with OR, AND, NOT and quotes (for example firearm* OR "handgun permit"), click Paste a search in the Advanced search panel. It turns the text into conditions and shows how many bills they match before you use them. You can add them to your conditions or replace them.

Why did this match?

When a word search finds a bill, the result shows where the words matched. Click Why did this match? to see each condition checked against that bill.

When full-text search is not ready

Full-text search is built state by state. If the word search for your state is still being prepared, word conditions and Paste a search are not available yet. Everything else works as usual.

Download the results as a spreadsheet

Click Download CSV next to Saved searches. The file lists the bills in the same order as the screen, with columns for the bill number, session, title, status, last action, sponsors, co-sponsors, subjects, categories, progress, your position, your priority, where the search matched, and a link to the bill.

A download holds up to 5,000 bills. If your search finds more, narrow it first. The same button is on the Tracked Bills page for your tracked list.

Related

• To keep a search and get alerts when new bills match, see the article on saved searches.
• To start following a bill, see the article on tracking bills.

If this does not solve it, email support@conservativestates.app and tell us your organization's name.