Using News Alerts and RSS Feed Readers to Track Legislation

This month, Senators Kerry, Lieberman and Graham will be releasing a new version of the climate change bill. This will be the third iteration of the climate change legislation – the most reviewed version being the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (CEJAPA) – to enter committee review in the U.S. Senate in the past six months. The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed its version of the carbon cap-and-trade bill last year – the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) – which also had several drafts before the final, approved version.

Thus, it is clear: before a climate bill reaches the President’s desk for signature, there have been multiple additions, deletions or complete rewrites of the legislation, as well as changes in policymakers’ positions and stakes on the proposed legislation.

With so many game changes and changers, how does an organization keep up? While companies like CapitolAdvantage provide software platforms to follow developments on the Hill, these options may be too pricey for non-profits. However, there are inexpensive ways to use existing Internet tools to help follow the action (or lack there of) in Congress on your target issues.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jordanconway/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Organizations may already be using Internet news alerts, such as Google Alerts or Yahoo! Alerts, to follow media coverage of  areas of interest, and utilizing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed readers, like Google Reader, to organize and track news alerts and updates from key outlets, blogs and Web sites. You can use these same tools to track federal and state legislation.

Creating news alerts with search terms related to a specific bill – such as the bill number, title, acronym, or even names of key legislators involved in the bill – will help organizations follow any updates about the legislation.  Registering for RSS news feeds from Congressional or state committee Web sites and key policymakers publicly connected to the bill will keep organizations informed of developments prior to resulting media reports. Ultimately, you’re using these tools to track legislation online the same way you would track a news story online.

THOMAS - the Library of Congress legislation database – is a great resource for identifying search terms to use to track a specific federal bill. There are also wiki databases maintained by non-profit government watchdog groups, like OpenCongress, which can provide similar information, but may be less authoritative and should be used with caution.

Using alerts and RSS feed readers to keep your organization abreast of  the ebbs and flows of policy issues or bills will make it easier to determine your positions, calls to action and when and how to best communicate them to key audiences.

Despite the myths, 501(c)3 organizations can lobby without losing their tax-exempt status. Visit the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest for more information about IRS lobbying rules for non-profit organizations. You’ll be surprised at how much your organization is allowed to do to impact policy.

In the meantime – while you wait for your bill updates to arrive – here’s a refresher course on how bills become laws and the role we can play, with policymakers, to make them happen.