State Rep. Kimberly Moser, a longtime neonatal and intensive care nurse, decided it was time to bring the best minds together to improve the odds for Kentucky mothers and babies. The result of months of research and discussion yielded a range of...

A growing number of states are trying to find what would keep children safe online without hindering constitutional rights to privacy, access and free speech.

Texas Senator Judith Zaffirini has broken state records by a long shot. She has cast more than 72-thousand consecutive votes. She has had a perfect attendance record—except that one time she skipped on purpose to make a point. She has...

NCSL’s yearlong Legislator Police Academy brought together lawmakers from very different backgrounds to work across the aisle and across the country on policy topics related to police accountability. In this episode, we learn how the...

Sometimes, the aisle lawmakers work across isn’t the one that separates the two parties. It’s the divide between rural and urban. That’s what happened in Colorado when urban voters narrowly passed a plan to reintroduce the...

Taylor Swift started something this year in state legislatures. When automated bots caused chaos in ticket sales and shut out many fans, lawmakers in 24 states and Puerto Rico explored how to regulate vendors like Ticketmaster. Texas was the...

After successfully adapting Kentucky’s election procedures during the pandemic, the state’s Democrats and Republicans worked together to make permanent some of the changes, including expanded early voting and absentee ballots.

As the pandemic raged during 2020, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, and Secretary of State Michael Adams, a Republican, were required by law to team up on the question of whether to postpone the election. They went much further, with...

The Colorado River is a key source of water in Arizona, and it’s dwindling in the face of a mega-drought now in its second decade. Arizona lawmakers are working across the aisle to find new water supplies for the arid state, where some...

Until recently, Alabama's constitution still had racist language from the original document written in 1901. Though the provisions weren't operable today, plenty of people have wanted them gone for years. But it wasn't easy to revise...

Young students in New Mexico made history when they convinced lawmakers that the smell of roasting chilis should be the state's official aroma. They researched, wrote letters, testified in hearings and celebrated when the Governor signed the...

State legislators increasingly are promoting civility and bipartisanship. One trainer says, “Civility is not just good manners, it's really being able to get something done.” We’ll discuss how that work is going and why...

The death of George Floyd unexpectedly created a historic opportunity for dialogue between Alabama Republicans and Democrats,  who worked across political and racial divides to address inequities. The conversations were raw and emotional,...

Eleven women in the Missouri Senate, six Republicans and five Democrats, worked across the aisle to write a book for children about all 36 of the women who have served. They also teamed up on controversial issues like redistricting and...

NCSL is launching a new podcast called Across the Aisle to explore how bipartisanship is working in state capitols. We’ll hear how state legislators connect across party lines to get things done, sometimes in unlikely ways, and how they...