Researching State Legislative Issues—Save Hours—Maybe Days—With New Impact Offering
By Dianne Chambers
Legal information professionals know how difficult it can be to research legislative issues on the federal level. Then add the unique challenges that arise when researching state bills, committee reports and testimony, feasibility studies, vetoes by governors and other attributes of legislative history.
Fortunately, LexisNexis offers a wide range of resources to tackle those challenges. And now you can add another great source to your arsenal: New State Legislative Impact® from Potomac Publishing Company® is now the exclusive online provider of this combination, offering StateNet information from 16 states combined with the technological power of Legislative Impact® and Regulatory Impact®.1 (See May LexisNexis Information Professional Update for more source details. And view State Legislative Impact at AALL Booth 425.)
Why should you consider doing your research through this source?
The first reason is because this content is easily accessible through a gateway on lexis.com. Potomac Publishing Company materials are listed conveniently on a variety of lexis.com menu screens. You can even use your Lexis® ID and password to go straight through to Potomac Publishing Company materials.
Next, this content is very easy to search. State Legislative Impact uses a series of drop-down menus that allow you to quickly plug in a citation for a state bill or statute. Or add a few simple search words to the Quick Search box. And there are no searching costs! In fact, you don’t incur costs until you click and gain access to a Legislative Impact document. So, if you would like to enter several searches, you do not have to worry about the cost.
Perhaps the most important reason is that this is content we all know and trust. StateNet offers timely, up-to-date, high-quality data and legislative monitoring in a user-friendly format. Add to that the ability to pull up a Legislative Impact document for state laws, and you have access to very powerful information.
How does this new content benefit you?
With one search, you can research state laws as well as view a detailed Legislative Impact document on a piece of legislation. You can review how pending legislation will affect or amend a current state law. In the past it would take hours—even days to do this research.
Plus State Legislative Impact gives you the flexibility to enter a citation for a state bill or statute.
For example, let’s research the legislative impact of 2007 Florida Senate Bill 106, a bill referring to child safety in school and child care facilities. After you log in at lexis.com:
PATH: Legal tab > Legislation and Politics – U.S. and U.K. > Potomac Publishing Company Materials
Click CONTINUE and select Legislative Impact under State Reports in the left navigation menu. Then:
1. Select Florida from the drop-down menu. (Note that the search box changes automatically to fit Florida’s legislative format.)
2. Select 2007 and Senate Bill from the Bills & Resolutions menu fields. ENTER: 106 in the empty field next to Senate Bill.
3. Click FIND.
Move directly to a synopsis of the bill. You can choose to view an impact document for every stage of legislation—from introduction forward.
Another way to search for Legislative Impact documents is to enter key words in the Quick Search box at the top of the left navigation bar on the Potomac Publishing Company page. (This searches legislation titles.) For example:
ENTER: child care facilities
You’ll retrieve an overview showing federal and state legislation. Even see U.S. Code and Federal Register impact documents listed. What a great way to see in a flash how a specific legislative subject is being treated nationwide.
Select state bills and resolutions. The list of documents is sorted by state. You can also sort by bill number. Click a link next to a bill, e.g., Amended, to move to the text, tracking report and any impact document.
1 Legislative Impact and Regulatory Impact are not available to law school subscribers and may not be available to government subscribers.
