New Year, New Lawmakers

Tip Sheet

This tip sheet from Sunlight's training session, New Year, New Lawmakers, provides resources for tracking elected officials at both the federal and state levels.

Make sure to check out the recording of the workshop, available here.

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Tracking Legislative Activities - Federal

• Legislator Misconduct Database

  • Loom Video Demo

  • Sign up to receive email updates on a legislator in the House or Senate.

• OpenSecrets

  • Use OpenSecrets to look for an official’s interactions with lobbyists, donors, industries, and more.

• GovTrack.us

  • Loom Video Demo

  • Can monitor federal legislation, track voting records, see committee assignments for each member, and follow activities of US Congress.

  • Sign up for alerts to receive updates on certain lawmakers to stay informed on legislative performance and priorities.

• Congress.gov

  • Loom Video Demo

  • Has a record of all congressional activities, including bills, resolutions, committee reports, and voting records.

  • Has tools to track legislative activities.

• GovInfo

  • Provides access to official federal government publications and documents, including bills, resolutions, committee reports, and Congressional records.

• Ballotpedia

  • Use this source to find information on elected officials, including their backgrounds, committee assignments, key votes, and election results.

• Plural Policy's Open Data & Democracy Tools

  • Free with premium options

  • Can track legislation at the state and federal levels

Tracking Legislative Activities - State

• NCSL

  • NCSL Bill Tracking and Subscription Services on Legislative Websites (for tracking bills at the state level)

  • 2025 State Legislative Session Calendar (interactive map to see which legislative sessions have started and when they will start)

• CalMatters Legislator Tracker Database

  • Use this database to search for legislation in California. This site provides a really good example of what these tracking databases at the state-level could look like.

• Texas Legislature Online

  • Use this database to search for legislation in Texas. Through this site, you can search both the Senate and the House.

• New York

  • New York State Assembly

    • Use this database to track legislation at the state-level in New York.

  • The New York City Council

    • Use this database to track legislation at the city-level in New York City.

• Colorado

  • Colorado General Assembly

    • Use this database to track legislation at the state-level in Colorado.

  • Colorado Capitol Watch

    • Another database to track legislation at the state-level in Colorado.

• LegiScan’s OneVote

  • Free with premium options

  • Can track legislative activities across all 50 states and Congress

Assessing Ethics and Resource Use

• Periodic Transaction Report (PTR) resources:

  • House Stock Watcher (free)

  • Senate Stock Watcher (free)

  • Capitol Trades (free)

  • Quiver Quant (free with premium features at cost)

  • Unusual Whales (free with premium features at cost)

• Personal Financial Disclosures

  • Senate Personal Financial Disclosures

  • House Personal Financial Disclosures

• Earmark Database

• Tracking Changes to Websites

  • If This, Then That

  • Visual Ping

Sunlight Research Center Tools

• Timeline & Source List

• Tracking Legislator Activity

🚨 These Tip Sheets are incredible resources, best used in conjunction with their live, hands-on workshop session component. Watch the recording of this workshop session here.

Interested in gaining access to our full database of workshop recordings?

Learn more about Sunlight membership

Questions or comments about Sunlight's workshops and resources? Contact Elizabeth at elizabeth@sunlightsearch.net