Written by Jillian Pevo, Associate Director of Legislative Affairs
Let me preface this by saying it was Steve’s idea for me to walk his faithful readers through the best ways to track different pieces of legislation online. So, if you find this post boring, you know who to blame. To spice things up let’s first look at the origins of the Internet (at least according to some), and the long history politicians apparently have with this wonderful research tool.
In all seriousness, these days there are a lot of resources on the Web that can be very helpful in checking up on the legislative goals of your Representative and Senators. The most encompassing and up-to-date legislative information tends to be on the "Thomas" site maintained by the Library of Congress. There are several ways to conduct an inquiry here.
For example, if you want to read the text of the legislation introduced by Representative Ed Royce to raise the credit union member business lending cap, or see if your own Representative has signed on as a cosponsor, click “search by bill number” and enter H.R. 1418. A bill originating in the House of Representatives is designated by the letters “H.R.” followed by a number that it retains throughout all its parliamentary stages. Bills introduced in the Senate begin with an “S.” After you plug in H.R. 1418, you can see all actions taken on the bill including the recent subcommittee hearing, how many members are cosponsoring the bill and who those members are. If you didn’t know the bill number, you could have just gone under “browse bills by sponsor” and selected Ed Royce. This would give you a bucket list of every single bill Representative Royce has introduced this Congress. Thomas is a quick and easy way to gather baseline information about what issues members of Congress care about.
From the Thomas site, you can also gain access to the Congressional Record which each day updates the public on every detail of the previous day’s legislative work. Every bill introduced, every member added as a cosponsor, every amendment filed, every roll call vote taken – you name it, it’s in here. There is also a lot of information found on the House.gov and Senate.gov websites about members and committees.
That’s the basics, but you are always welcome to call our Legislative team at NAFCU who can help answer questions and give you more up-to-date information on how various issues are shaping up on the Congressional front. Most of us have worked on Capitol Hill and we all enjoy connecting our credit union members with what’s going on “Inside the Beltway.”
I’m so appreciative that I could be a guest writer on this blog – as they say, always a bridesmaid never the bride! I’ll leave that to Steve. :)
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