State legislative research, from search to citation
Bill Commons helps people find stored state legislative records, inspect what changed, and carry source-linked evidence into another tool. The public surfaces below work without an account; coverage and update timing vary by jurisdiction.
Search state legislation
Search by bill number or keywords, or start with a state and session. Results lead to bill pages with the title, sponsors, recorded actions, versions, votes, official source links, and local retrieval details where those fields are available.
Try paid family leave, browse the state directory, or open the record for North Carolina HB 123.
Compare bill versions and trace actions
When extracted text is available for at least two versions, Bill Commons computes a deterministic line-by-line diff. The bill record also exposes its stored action timeline so a researcher can separate text changes from procedural movement.
Compare the available NC HB 123 versions or read the methodology and OCR limitations.
Build citation-backed evidence packets
An evidence packet brings the bill facts used in an answer together with an official source URL, local retrieval time, record scope, and notes identifying derived fields. Its snapshot ID changes when a cited fact changes.
A snapshot ID is a change detector, not a historical archive. Keep a copy when exact prior wording matters. Open the NC HB 123 evidence packet to see the human-readable result.
Follow curated topics and scoped action feeds
Curated topic trackers group bills using titles and official subject tags. They are distinct from one-off keyword searches and can be narrowed to a state, such as the North Carolina data privacy tracker.
A scoped Atom feed is available for recorded actions. This example is limited to North Carolina and the data-privacy topic:
https://api.billcommons.org/api/v1/feeds/NC.atom?kind=actions&topic=data-privacy
Feeds cover newly recorded local actions in a rolling 30-day window. Their timestamps describe ingestion, not the official action time, and an empty feed does not prove that no legislation or action exists.
Explore aggregate state bill status
The flagship State bill status distribution report groups stored derived statuses into enacted, did-not-pass, pending, and unknown views by public jurisdiction.
It includes multiple stored sessions and is not a 2026-only census. Source gaps and incomplete status derivation can affect the totals, so the report keeps unknowns visible and links back to coverage and methodology.
Connect software and AI assistants
The public REST API exposes the stored records and the read-only MCP server exposes 11 legislative research tools over Streamable HTTP. Public read access requires no API key.
ChatGPT plugin in preparation. The public MCP endpoint is available now for a developer-mode connection. The packaged plugin, including its prepared skills, has not been published, submitted, or approved for a public directory.
https://mcp.billcommons.org/mcp
Know what the record cannot establish
Bill Commons covers state legislatures and DC. It does not cover US Congress, city or county ordinances, hearing schedules, committee calendars, or party and district profiles. Historical depth and extracted bill text vary by source.
Source links and freshness timestamps make records inspectable, but they do not prove the stored record is complete or identical to the latest official page. Check the official source before relying on a time-sensitive conclusion, and treat an empty result as a reason to inspect coverage, not as proof of absence.