Category Archives: Tip of the Week

Calendars with Attachments      When the Legislature returns from Spring Break, be ready for a busy season of committee hearings. Use Calenadar Reports in CapitolTrack to keep on top of when your bills are being heard! Do you need to keep on top of Position Letters, Facts Sheets or an internal analysis? Include Attachments on Calendar reports to show these crucial documents when they matter most.      Create a policy of uploading your…

Choose Your Summary      Bills are being amended more frequently as committee season approaches. Choose the summary of bill text which best suits you when reviewing those amendments. We have several ‘flavors’ to include in your reports: Summary Brief: The Summary Brief will shorten the full Legislative Digest to the sections mentioning how ‘this bill would’ change existing law. Summary Short: The Summary Short is slightly longer than the Summary Brief and includes the…

Committee and Floor Video Search      Take a look at the Members / Committees tab and find our latest addition to the utility CapitolTrack provides. The Floor/Committee Video tab is modestly populated with a simple searchbar. Type a phrase or an organization in which you’re interested and find a table of the resulting Committee and Floor videos in which your search terms were found. The videos are ordered by which hearings mentioned your term,…

Replacing a User in CapitolTrack      This time of year you may find the need to update the users who can access your CapitolTrack account. While we’re happy to provide your new user with a login, if this new user is replacing a former user, there are five places you can update your account to complete the replacement: 1. The Assigned Field:     Click on your username, then Settings & Tools at the…

Review The Introduced Bills      Friday, February 16th, brings the Legislative Deadline to introduce new bills. Create a report of all bills introduced since session began on January 3rd and use the Last Reviewed feature to ensure you’ve seen them all. Use these Report Filters to create your Introduced Bills report:      Select the Sources: Tracked, Nontracked and Archived to ensure you’re reviewing all introdcued bills. Next, set the date field to January…

January Deadlines      The first two Legislative Deadlines of January have passed, taking with them many of the Bills from 2023 which failed to either pass their policy or fiscal committees. Here is how these first two deadlines stack up against their 2020 and 2022 counterparts:      The first deadline of the year, requiring all fiscal bills in their first house be out of their policy committees saw 276 bills fail, while in…

Filter for the Second Year of Session      As new bills are being introduced for the second year of session, carryover bills from 2023 are also being amended, and moving forward. Use the calendar date and associated actions under Bill Filters to find what’s new in 2024:      The above filters show all bills which have an action of Introduced, Amended or a new motion since the legislature reconvened on January 3rd. Review…

Welcome Back      The 2024 Legislative Session is underway with 33 newly introduced measures on January 3rd. With the measures available from 2023 still eligible to carry over, you may find yourself in need of some ‘clean up.’ We have a feature for that called, Auto-Archive.      Find Auto-Archive by clicking on your username in the top right corner, and then Settings & Tools.      Archived Tracking forms don’t typically show in…

Be Prepared Back to Session Checklist: Start this year with everything you need. If you’d like any help getting your account ready for the start of a new year, let us know and we’ll assist you. Be sure to have the following all set: Introduced and Amended Reports for daily review Reports with date limits that are up-to-date Clean up or add new Report Categories Check your Tracking Form for out-of-date selections Update report titles to reflect Organization name changes Check your users’ emails and update as…

Calendar Tips      Calendar events are being set for the first weeks back in January; be sure your CapitolTrack Calendar Reports are ready! Filter your calendar for Committee Events and display critical information like your position, assignment and the current analysis: Create a Calendar Feed:      Calendar feeds can import your calendar report into a digital calendar like Outlook.  Click the Web Link icon to the right of the report before you run…