Resource NCSL’s Legislation-Tracking Databases: A Comprehensive User Guide

Database Types and Status Update Frequency

NCSL operates two types of legislation-tracking databases:  

• Introduced legislation databases: Track all introduced legislation within a specific topic area. 
• Enacted legislation databases: Only include enacted legislation within a specific topic area.  

Introduced Legislation Databases 

Introduced databases contain bills and resolutions in all stages of the legislative process, including pending, failed, failed due to adjournment, to governor, vetoed, enacted and adopted. The status of “to mayor” is specific to the District of Columbia. New legislation is added as bills and resolutions are identified by NCSL staff, and the date of the last comprehensive update is indicated on the left-hand side of the page under the header.  

The status information for legislation in introduced databases is updated daily and includes bill history, status and date of last action. Each entry also contains a link to the most recent version of text, which is updated daily.  

Enacted Legislation Databases  

Enacted databases contain only resolutions that have been approved by the legislature and bills that have been approved by the legislature and signed by the governor. Enactments are added only once final action has been taken to approve the measure. Legislation is added as identified by NCSL staff and the date of the last update is indicated under the database title. Status filters for this database include “enacted,” which pulls legislation that has been approved by both chambers and signed by the governor and “adopted,” which includes joint and single chamber resolutions that have been approved.  

Status for Bills in Previous Sessions

NCSL’s databases operate on a standard 12-month calendar cycle with updates ceasing at the end of each calendar year and beginning again in January of the following year. If a bill from a previous calendar year session is enacted, vetoed or signed by the governor in the new calendar year, NCSL staff will update that information in the previous calendar year listing. NCSL does not retroactively update the status of legislation that fails due to adjournment or that carries over into the next session (in with a two-year biennium).  

Therefore, in states that are in session at the end of a calendar year, some bills from previous sessions may still be listed as “pending” years after that session has ended. These bills frequently fail due to adjournment or sometimes carry over to the second year of a state’s biennium. To see if a bill has carried over to the second year of a biennium, you will need to check for the bill in the next year listed in the database for the updated status. If a bill is not tracked in the second calendar year of a state’s biennium, it likely failed. 

What is carryover legislation and how does it impact NCSL’s databases?

In nearly half the states, legislation pending at the end of session dies, with most of these states starting each new calendar year with a clean slate of newly introduced legislation. Legislatures in Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Texas are biennial, so no regular session is held during the second year of a biennium. 

The remaining states allow bills to carry over from the first year of a biennium to the second. Legislation in 25 states carries over from the odd-numbered year to the even-numbered year. In two states, New Jersey and Virginia, legislation carries over from the even-numbered year to the odd-numbered year in a biennium. 

Carryover bills generally fall into one of three “status” categories: 

• Bills remain exactly where they were when the first year ended (for example, in committee or on a floor calendar).
• Bills remain in, or revert to, the standing committee to which last referred.
• All bills are sent to the chamber’s rules committee. 

Some states establish special procedures for carryover bills. For example, in California, bills introduced in the first year of the biennium must be passed by the house of origin by Jan. 31 of the second year. If the house of origin does not pass a bill by Jan. 31, it dies. NCSL staff generally don’t track carryover legislation in a state with rules like California until bills clear this threshold and begin to advance in the second year of the biennium.  

In Maine and North Carolina, the second session of a biennium has a limited scope (i.e., only certain subjects or bills are allowed to be considered), so not all bills introduced in the first session are eligible for consideration in the second session. The legislature passes a joint order or a resolution listing the bills to carry over. 

Carryover does not prohibit new identical bills containing the same text. A member may introduce identical legislation in both years of a biennium unless prohibited from doing so by other rules and procedures. However, carryover legislation that advances across multiple years may populate as a duplicate in NCSL’s database, being listed in the initial year of introduction and again in subsequent calendar years where the bill is active.  

For example, if State House Bill 123 is introduced in 2022 and continues to advance in the legislature in 2023, it will populate in the database as pending in the 2022 records. It will then show any status updates and new bill text in the 2023 entry. The 2022 entry would not be updated as the bill was still pending at the end of the 2022 calendar year. If State House Bill 123 is eventually enacted, the 2022 entry will still be listed as pending with information reflecting status and text at the end of the 2022 calendar year, while the 2023 entry will be updated with information about the bill’s eventual enactment and final text. 

Search Tips

Below are ways to use NCSL’s databases to find legislation, including helpful hints about how the databases work. The default setting for NCSL databases is to return results for all topics in all states in the most recent calendar year available. Users may narrow their searches by state, year, topic and status of legislation. 

• Topic: Each database contains a list of topics developed by NCSL staff. NCSL staff read and manually assign legislation to these topics when a bill is added to a database. With enacted databases, these topics reflect the final version of the bill. In introduced databases, these topics frequently reflect the bill as introduced, so bills that have been significantly amended may no longer reflect the initial topics assigned by NCSL staff. If no topics are selected in the database, the database will default to returning results from all topics. Searches may be run with one or multiple topics. A description of the topics can be found below each database. If topics are used only in certain years, those notes will be available in the description of topics. 
• State: Searches may be run by selecting one, multiple or all states to tailor results to a specific region or grouping of jurisdictions. Information from the District of Columbia and the territories is also available for all NCSL databases. After performing a search with any filters, the results bar will display the total number of bills and the total number of jurisdictions where results were found. 
• Year: Searches may be run by selecting one year or all available years. Information for previous sessions is not updated beyond the end of a calendar year. See above for specific timelines for status updates. 
• Author: Search for author or sponsor information by using a legislator’s last name. This field does not account for additional authors or co-sponsors, only the primary author or sponsor. 
• Bill Number: Search for a specific bill by entering the bill number only. Exclude state or chamber information and only utilize the number for this search field.  
• Status: For more information, see database types above. In introduced databases this field may be used to filter bills by their progress through legislatures, including pending, failed, failed due to adjournment, to governor, vetoed, enacted and adopted.  
• Keyword: Search bill titles and summaries using a keyword. Note that this field is not a full-text search of bill text. 

Legislation entries in NCSL databases from 2015 forward include a hyperlink to the most current version of the text of that measure. This feature is limited or unavailable in databases that contain information predating 2015.  

NCSL’s bill-tracking databases are powered by LexisNexis State Net and are populated manually by NCSL staff. The databases generally include legislation of significant action and not technical legislation due to the volume of bills considered every year in state legislatures. Please use the contact form on each page to let NCSL know if you think a bill is missing from a database. For general inquiries about access to NCSL’s data, please use the email contact form at the top of this webpage.