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Plugged In, Tuning Up (March 2001)
PRACTICES OF NOTE
We have outlined noteworthy features and promising practices employed by state
legislative online resources on their websites. While not a comprehensive listing of features, it is our
hope that this will encourage other sites to consider similar features or enhancements, if
not innovation, in their efforts.
- Alabama: provides a toll-free 1-800 number for bill updates to complement its website
- Alaska: Committee meetings can be accessed by a particular piece of legislation or
by date
- Arizona: Users access particular bills directly from the sponsor/co-sponsors' profile page
- Arkansas: Provides public access to the Senate's social calendar
- California: Access to state agency reports through the legislative site
- Colorado: Engages in a public outsourcing partnership with nonpartisan
nonprofit organization Project Vote-Smart (http://www.vote-smart.org), which features
a comprehensive database of legislator profile information from around the country
- Connecticut: Provides a range of web-based customizable features that connect
with other state government entities
- Delaware: Provides public access to Lexis searchable full text version of state code
- Florida: Provides a tip sheet for citizen lobbying
- Georgia: Uses the template of the main state page, providing consistency and
continuity of design elements for site visitors
- Hawaii: Provides a statement of compliance with the American with Disabilities Act
- Idaho: Provides a current "what's happening" section on the main page;
provides contact information for committees
- Illinois: Provides access to full legislative transcripts and journals
- Indiana: Provides a listing of members by party affiliation in addition to other means
- Iowa: Developed and maintained as a collaborative effort between an institution
of higher learning and a civic participation nonprofit (Cornell College and League
of Women Voters of Iowa)
- Kansas: Provides information of committee hearings a regular part of
committee minutes.
- Kentucky: Features a section on public services offered, and allows full search of
state code, constitution, and regulations
- Louisiana: Lets users search for the vote tally on bills by bill number
- Maine: Allows users to contact one member, full committee membership, full
party membership, or all members of a chamber through its member contact service
- Maryland: Provides public access to legislator handbook; users can access bills by
the particular section of the state code it affects
- Massachusetts: Conducts searches on the full range of state laws from multiple sources
- Michigan: Provides a statement of acceptable use with respect to content on its site
- Minnesota: Provides a legislative staff directory
- Mississippi: Utilizes a basic FTP site for downloading specific documents
- Missouri: Good example of a legislative hub, linking House and Senate chambers
- Montana: provides two separate bill search engines to address general and
specific user needs
- Nebraska: Provides an easy-to-understand primer on the state budget process
- Nevada: Direct access to state supreme court opinions
- New Hampshire: Provides access to lobbyist registration listings by lobbyist name
and firm
- New Jersey: Provides content in Spanish
- New Mexico: Provides a listing of popular issues under consideration
- New York: General Assembly offers access to press releases from both majority
and minority leadership
- North Carolina: Provides simple explanations of legislative process in text, graphic,
and PDF format; features a statement outlining all document and content formats
used throughout the site, what tools are need, and how to install them.
- North Dakota: the Legislative Research Council provides a free public legislative
bill tracking system, accessible via the web and e-mail.
- Ohio: provides public access to "members-only" legislative reports and analysis.
Also features access to court rules and state rulemaking procedures.
- Oklahoma: Allows users to choose full text of all measures either through a s
search engine or plain text listings
- Oregon: Provides a guide on how to testify before the legislature, seating chart for
both chambers, and public access to an executive appointments calendar.
- Pennsylvania: Features a toll-free TTD telephone number for hearing-impaired users
to access bill information. Features access to the full listing of pending
nominations. Provides an alternative search engine for browsers not able to support
Javascript search tools.
- Rhode Island: Provides a scrolling newsticker on the home page for current
legislative events. Search engine can access both legislative information and the entire site
- South Carolina: Sets out an e-mail usage policy for both public and lawmakers.
Allows visitors to subscribe to receive updates on journals, chamber activity (including new
bill introductions), calendar, lobbyist lists, legislative updates, and additional
sponsors/co-sponsors via e-mail or Palm Pilot
- South Dakota: Comprehensive searchable database of biographical and
legislative profiles for all members since statehood and territorial government.
Web-based personalized bill tracking feature does not use cookies
- Tennessee: Provides access to subcommittee schedules, as well as to the
registered lobbyist list organized by clients and linked to lobbyist rules section
- Texas: Live and archived streaming media content from both chambers. Features
both a free registration-based bill tracking service and a
non-cookie/non-Javascript alternative bill search engine. Legislative journals for both chambers are provided
in both HTML and PDF format, and organized by month
- Utah: Calendar of legislative activity can be viewed in multiple ways
- Vermont: Multiple combinations of legislative information searches can be done from
a common search interface, including bill status, chamber, and portion of state
law affected
- Virginia: Links legislator information search to free member contact service
- Washington: Provides contact information for both member state and district offices,
as well as public access to the state administrative code and legislator bill
drafting guidelines
- West Virginia: Provides a series of online tutorials that walks individuals through
specific legislative processes and procedures
- Wisconsin: Features a guide to installing and using browser accessories, features
both generic member contact pages and more personalized individual member pages.
Provides live online access to the chamber message boards when legislature is
in session
- Wyoming: Access to program evaluation and audit reports, and allows specific
sections and titles of statues to be viewed or downloaded
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