Bill Commons Report · 2026 cycle
How State Bills Die
The most common way a state bill ends is not a vote. It is the session adjourning with the bill still sitting in committee — nothing is filed, no action is recorded, the bill just stops. Trackers that read only the action record report those bills as alive indefinitely. This report measures that silence across every state legislature in the country.
Died on adjournment
35.2%
73,767 bills ran out of clock
Enacted
12.4%
25,912 bills became law
Actively killed
11.6%
24,404 voted down, vetoed, or withdrawn
Tracked bills
209,677
All 50 states + DC
| State | Bills | Enacted | Died on adjournment | Killed | Pending | Enact rate | Adjournment mortality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota | 10,638 | 146 | 10,271 | 221 | 0 | 1.4% | 96.6% |
| Missouri | 3,175 | 84 | 3,052 | 35 | 4 | 2.6% | 96.1% |
| Hawaii | 6,727 | 296 | 6,423 | 7 | 1 | 4.4% | 95.5% |
| South Carolinain session | 3,961 | 269 | 3,685 | 5 | 2 | 6.8% | 93% |
| West Virginia | 2,975 | 295 | 2,665 | 15 | 0 | 9.9% | 89.6% |
| Vermont | 1,718 | 191 | 1,514 | 13 | 0 | 11.1% | 88.1% |
| Kentucky | 1,737 | 204 | 1,503 | 30 | 0 | 11.7% | 86.5% |
| Connecticut | 1,283 | 185 | 1,098 | 0 | 0 | 14.4% | 85.6% |
| Iowa | 4,363 | 364 | 3,572 | 427 | 0 | 8.3% | 81.9% |
| Georgia | 5,656 | 743 | 4,596 | 317 | 0 | 13.1% | 81.3% |
| Indiana | 935 | 164 | 756 | 15 | 0 | 17.5% | 80.9% |
| Washington | 3,413 | 690 | 2,722 | 1 | 0 | 20.2% | 79.8% |
| Alaskain session | 856 | 82 | 645 | 45 | 84 | 9.6% | 75.4% |
| Oklahoma | 6,005 | 969 | 4,336 | 584 | 116 | 16.1% | 72.2% |
| Delawarein session | 1,296 | 361 | 925 | 10 | 0 | 27.9% | 71.4% |
| Arizonain session | 2,190 | 264 | 1,535 | 354 | 37 | 12.1% | 70.1% |
| Virginiain session | 3,937 | 972 | 2,414 | 252 | 299 | 24.7% | 61.3% |
| Maryland | 2,671 | 879 | 1,626 | 166 | 0 | 32.9% | 60.9% |
| Texasin session | 12,788 | 1,383 | 7,683 | 281 | 3,441 | 10.8% | 60.1% |
| Alabama | 1,507 | 611 | 833 | 59 | 4 | 40.5% | 55.3% |
| Idaho | 817 | 344 | 444 | 22 | 7 | 42.1% | 54.3% |
| Oregon | 304 | 142 | 162 | 0 | 0 | 46.7% | 53.3% |
| South Dakota | 666 | 242 | 311 | 113 | 0 | 36.3% | 46.7% |
| Tennessee | 9,112 | 3,942 | 4,255 | 227 | 688 | 43.3% | 46.7% |
| Nevada | 1,237 | 532 | 562 | 95 | 48 | 43% | 45.4% |
| North Dakota | 1,101 | 606 | 461 | 34 | 0 | 55% | 41.9% |
| Utah | 1,016 | 512 | 398 | 80 | 26 | 50.4% | 39.2% |
| Colorado | 714 | 433 | 269 | 12 | 0 | 60.6% | 37.7% |
| Louisiana | 2,616 | 972 | 840 | 57 | 747 | 37.2% | 32.1% |
| Montana | 6,159 | 778 | 1,860 | 3,521 | 0 | 12.6% | 30.2% |
| Arkansas | 281 | 146 | 74 | 37 | 24 | 52% | 26.3% |
| New Hampshire | 1,394 | 341 | 365 | 681 | 7 | 24.5% | 26.2% |
| Nebraska | 1,847 | 362 | 473 | 1,009 | 3 | 19.6% | 25.6% |
| Rhode Island | 3,020 | 492 | 647 | 1,881 | 0 | 16.3% | 21.4% |
| Florida | 1,964 | 230 | 313 | 1,411 | 10 | 11.7% | 15.9% |
| Maine | 2,451 | 971 | 190 | 1,290 | 0 | 39.6% | 7.8% |
| Mississippiin session | 4,116 | 374 | 227 | 3,304 | 211 | 9.1% | 5.5% |
| Kansas | 1,483 | 240 | 61 | 1,076 | 106 | 16.2% | 4.1% |
| New Mexico | 812 | 124 | 1 | 687 | 0 | 15.3% | 0.1% |
| Californiain session | 4,995 | 1,246 | 0 | 1,269 | 2,480 | 24.9% | 0% |
| District of Columbiain session | 1,752 | 1,053 | 0 | 97 | 602 | 60.1% | 0% |
| Illinoisin session | 12,767 | 616 | 0 | 43 | 12,108 | 4.8% | 0% |
| Massachusettsin session | 18,531 | 248 | 0 | 1 | 18,282 | 1.3% | 0% |
| Michiganin session | 3,884 | 146 | 0 | 0 | 3,738 | 3.8% | 0% |
| North Carolinain session | 2,335 | 168 | 0 | 648 | 1,519 | 7.2% | 0% |
| New Jerseyin session | 10,712 | 0 | 0 | 296 | 10,416 | 0% | 0% |
| New Yorkin session | 25,332 | 898 | 0 | 1,459 | 22,975 | 3.5% | 0% |
| Ohioin session | 2,459 | 99 | 0 | 1 | 2,359 | 4% | 0% |
| Pennsylvaniain session | 4,883 | 134 | 0 | 0 | 4,749 | 2.7% | 0% |
| Wisconsinin session | 2,751 | 258 | 0 | 2,133 | 360 | 9.4% | 0% |
| Wyomingin session | 335 | 111 | 0 | 83 | 141 | 33.1% | 0% |
States still in session (or whose adjournment date is unconfirmed) naturally show low adjournment mortality — their bills are counted as pending until the gavel falls. Expect these numbers to rise through the fall as more 2026 sessions adjourn.
Methodology
Statuses are derived from each bill's official action record (via Open States / Plural and state sources), then a calendar rule is applied: a bill still at a live stage when its session's confirmed adjournment date passes is marked died_on_adjournment. The rule is deliberately conservative:
- Enrolled bills survive adjournment — governors sign for weeks after sine die, and calling those dead would be the same error in the other direction.
- A real outcome is never overwritten: "died in committee" stays as recorded rather than being flattened into the adjournment bucket, so Killed and Died on adjournment are disjoint.
- Where a session's end date is unconfirmed — mostly two-year carryover biennia where pending bills genuinely roll into year two — nothing is assumed and bills stay Pending.
Full derivation rules are in the methodology, and every underlying bill is public via the free API (/api/v1/stats/mortality reproduces this table). Cite as: Bill Commons, "How State Bills Die," billcommons.org.