Legislation – What’s Hot . . . . . . . Federal and State Legislature Sites, Part 1, Alabama – Montana
Kelly Crouch, CFA Legislative Information Liaison
Sharon Coleman, CFA Legislative Legal Analyst
November 2021
Fanciers need reliable information about legislation that may impact them and must
know where to find it. Media outlets may (or may not!) report that something is up but
should not be relied upon for the entire, unbiased story. Like many fanciers, reporters
generally are not experts in the nuances of laws and proposed legislation. Many will
not even read the proposed bill but rely on the “experts” who authored or sponsored
the legislation. Those experts will introduce their spin on why the bill is important.
They want it enacted after all. Sometimes, they will even gloss over or ignore the more
controversial aspects of the bill, an element that may be important to us. As reporters
frequently are not experts in the subject matter, we cannot rely upon them to report
what we think is most important. The journalist is simply reporting what the source
has told them, not genuinely investigating the story. We are our own best advocates
and must do this work ourselves. That means analyzing the proposed bill along with
the current law ourselves. The most reliable source for that information is the govern-
ment itself.
The U.S. government and each state have websites for their legislatures that contain a
wealth of information, including a bill search function for pending legislation. Over time
the websites have and continue to evolve as the developers add more functionality
and better content. Some sites are more basic in nature, while others are a treasure
trove of information for those willing to search. When data is not easily found on a
government-run site, another site called Legiscan may have that information. Legis-
can is not a government-run site but is an API (application programming interface)
launched 20 years ago to provide individuals access to a legislative tracking service
to research, monitor, and report on legislation. There is a free version of this API and a
paid-for version with enhanced capabilities.
This two-part article will provide links to the official government websites of the legis-
latures of all 50 states and the federal government and Legiscan. The links are divided
between the two parts, with this first part focused on why this information is crucial.
The types of information available on these sites will be discussed in part two.
| URL (click to open new page) | URL (copy and paste) |
| Multistate Tracking site | |
| Legiscan | https://legiscan.com/ |
| Federal | |
| Congress.gov (U.S.) | https://www.congress.gov/ |
| District of Columbia | Editor’s note: added 12/2/21 |
| Washington D.C. | https://dc.gov/ |
| State Sites: Alabama – Montana | |
| Alabama Legislature | http://www.legislature.state.al.us/aliswww/default.aspx |
| Alaska State Legislature | http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/index.php |
| Arizona State Legislature | https://www.azleg.gov/ |
| Arkansas State Legislature | https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ |
| California Legislative Information | https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ http://leginfo.ca.gov 1993-1998 historic |
| Colorado General Assembly | http://leg.colorado.gov/ |
| Connecticut General Assembly | https://www.cga.ct.gov/ |
| Delaware General Assembly | https://legis.delaware.gov/ |
| Florida Legislature | http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Welcome/index.cfm |
| Georgia General Assembly | https://www.legis.ga.gov/ |
| Hawaii State Legislature | https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/ |
| Idaho Legislature | https://legislature.idaho.gov/ |
| Illinois General Assembly | https://www.ilga.gov/ |
| Indiana General Assembly | http://iga.in.gov/ |
| Iowa Legislature | https://www.legis.iowa.gov/ |
| Kansas Legislature | http://www.kslegislature.org/li/ |
| Kentucky General Assembly | https://legislature.ky.gov/Pages/index.aspx |
| Louisiana State Legislature | http://www.legis.la.gov/legis/home.aspx |
| Maine State Legislature | https://legislature.maine.gov/ |
| Maryland General Assembly | https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/ |
| Massachusetts, General Court of the Commonwealth | https://malegislature.gov/ |
| Michigan Legislature | http://www.legislature.mi.gov |
| Minnesota State Legislature | https://www.leg.mn.gov/ |
| Mississippi Legislature | http://www.legislature.ms.gov/ |
| Missouri State Website | https://www.mo.gov/government/legislative-branch/ |
| Montana State Legislature | https://leg.mt.gov |
Recent CFA Legislative Group Blog Posts:
Legislation – What’s Hot . . . . . Massachusetts Cat Breeder Licensing Legislation