Third-Party Use of Legislative Data

Help us help you!

Emily Shaw, National Policy Manager eshaw@sunlightfoundation.com

How are third parties using legislative data?

Scout

OpenStates

Lawmaking Process Data

Lawmaker data

What is “Legislative Data”?• Can mean any information coming from a legislature:• Core datasets include laws, bills, legislators, votes – the “who” and “what” of

legislative activity• Additional datasets – mandated reports, hearing testimony, and records of

committee processes – answer “how” and “why” questions

• Most useful to third parties when it is in structured, machine-readable, non-proprietary format• Should be timely, complete, and available for bulk download

Why are third parties using it?

• Helping people get to read bill text or laws• Making it easier for people see how their legislators are voting• Sending alerts to let people know about events of interest• Providing context to explain meaning of bills/laws• Connecting legislative action with preferences of outside parties• Studying legislative behavior over time• Connecting constituents with legislators in new ways

Who benefits from their activity?

• Legislators and staff• Citizens• Journalists• Advocacy groups• Businesses• Lawyers• Academics and researchers

Why not develop these services in-house?

• Cost• Potentially politically risky• Requires experimentation – many apps

fail

EVERYBODY!

How can your legislature empower more third party use?• Make your data available in open, structured formats!

Open Up Your Legislative Data

• For Global Legislative Openness Week, letter sent to presiding officers of all state legislative chambers• Nearly 50 signatories from across the national civic technology and

academic communities – ask me for a local contact!• Requests making your bills, votes, information about representatives,

and committee composition available in non-proprietary, structured, machine-readable formats

What does this look like to us?

Data available in spreadsheet form: NH

Data available by API: Georgia

Data availability + data structure = data usability• Legislatures generate massive amounts of important and valuable

information• Third party services can greatly increase the number of eyes on this

data• By providing legislative data in forms that promote reuse, you

increase the number of third parties willing to work with your data• Help us help you get it out there!

What are some easy ways to start?• Provide a downloadable roster of representatives & committees in a

spreadsheet so third parties can link them accurately to actions• Make your own database metadata for bill actions publicly accessible

so third parties can accurately report on how bills are moving• If your votes are only available in PDF, provide them in tabular form• Want more detailed advice on how to structure and publish your data?

Get in touch with us!