People have asked me the best way to keep track of our elected officials and legislation without having to navigate through the Byzantine set of systems that our state has currently in place. I wanted to take a few minutes to type up a couple online ways to keep an eye on those bills as they progress, and how to use them to keep yourself informed.
Bills, bills, bills
I’m not actually sure of the number of bills that are introduced each year in the Missouri legislature, but I do know that it is way too many for anyone to actually keep up with every single one. Legiscan is a handy, free to use website that allows you to see every bill that is introduced along with where it currently is in the process of becoming a law. You can search by topic, which representative introduced it, or by something as generic as what bills were introduced today. For instance, my local representative Sara Walsh introduced a new bill that would increase the fee charged for DNA profiling in a court case to be collected by the local county clerk. (HB37 if you are interested)
This is an especially handy tool when you are wanting to see the changes of of a bill as it makes its way through committee and out to a vote. I would encourage you to find a couple bills that you are curious about and keep an eye on them. If you have questions about any of them please take this time to reach out to the Representative that introduced it and let them know that you are keeping an eye on it. Staying informed makes you a valuable constituent.
You can check out visit Legiscan at www.legiscan.com
Show Me The Money
Another neat tool that I like to use to keep an eye on my elected officials is followthemoney.org It is much more user friendly than our current MEC site and allows you to see what candidates that large donors are supporting. It is also the easiest way that I’ve found to see what committees that a representative is currently serving on. It’s important to see what industries or individuals are contributing to campaigns so that you can see if any legislation is impacted by it. We do not want any “pay to play” politics in Missouri and we need to make sure that our elected officials know that.
Use these couple tools to help us keep an eye on what is being introduced on our behalf by our elected representatives and to help make sure that your wants are being brought up in the statehouse. Make sure to contact your representative if that is not the case or if you have any issue with any potential conflicts of interest that you might notice as you follow the money.
Let me know in the comments what bills you are tracking!
Thanks so much. We intend to get involved this fall.
I look forward to having you guys come out! We’re going to have a few community service projects coming up in the spring. We’ll need all hands on deck!