Guide

How the Legislative Dashboard works

A research tool for California legislation — bills, votes, committee analyses, hearings, legislators, and the statutes bills touch, kept current with a nightly sync. Here's the short version of how to get the most out of it.

The core workflow

Find

Search and filter bills by author, status, session, or keyword.

Organize

Save bills to lists and mark a position on each.

Track

Follow a bill's path through committee and the floor.

Watch

See which committees are hearing your bills, and when.

Read

Read bill text, amendments, analyses, and the statutes they touch.

Find the bills that matter

Start from the search band on the home page or the full table on Bills. Both search bill numbers, titles, and authors.

Press “/” to search. From the home page, the “/” key jumps straight to the search box.
Advanced filters. Filter by author, chamber, status, and session — the match count updates as you type.
Earlier sessions. Switch the session selector to browse 2019–2020 through the current term.
Daily Digest. The Digest tab on Bills shows exactly what changed in the latest nightly sync.

Open Bills

Lists

Build a watchlist with positions

Lists are your workspace. Add any bill, mark where you stand, and keep everything in one place.

Support / Oppose / Watch. Give every bill a position — your lists tally the breakdown for you.
Share a read-only link. Generate a public link to hand a watchlist to a colleague or client — no account needed to view.
Freshness dots. A blue dot marks any bill updated since you last opened it, down to the section.

View your lists

Tracking

Follow a bill through committee

Open any bill to see its stage rail and a full committee picture — useful when you're whipping votes.

Status rail. The pip rail on the bill header shows the full path: desk → committees → floor → governor.
Tracking tab. See the committee roster with a party breakdown, log your whip count, and note where each member stands.
Legislator notes. Keep a dated note log on any member — it follows them across every bill you track.

Open a bill

Hearings

Know what's being heard, and when

The Hearings view reads the Assembly and Senate daily files every day and links each agenda item to your bills.

Filter by list. Pick one of your lists to highlight only the hearings that include your tracked bills.
Find a bill's hearing. Type a bill number or keyword to spot which committee is hearing it this week.
Prep documents. Open a hearing to read posted agendas and background materials inline.

Open Hearings

Text & analyses

Read the text, amendments, and analyses

Every bill carries its full text, each amendment version, and the committee staff analyses prepared along the way.

Amendment markup. Switch versions to see insertions and deletions in red and italic, just like the official print.
Committee analyses. Read staff reports — fiscal impact, background, and arguments — beside the bill text.
Citation links. Highlighted code citations open the actual statute text in a split pane next to the bill.

Open a bill

Legislators

Browse members and committees

The Legislators page is the full roster plus every committee's membership — standing, budget, select, special, and joint.

Three roster views. Roll call (sortable table), Gallery (photo grid), or Delegation (party caucus breakdown).
Any committee's roster. Filter to a committee to see its chair, vice chair, and members — joint committees show both chambers.
Contact & district maps. Each member's detail page has capitol and district offices plus a district map.

Open Legislators

Statutes

Browse and search California codes

The Statutes view mirrors the California Codes — browse the tree or search the full text.

Keyword search. Search section text across all codes, or narrow to one code.
Jump to a citation. Type a citation like “GOV 65852” to go straight to that section.

Open Statutes

Look for the i tip markers around the app — they explain less-obvious tools right where you'll use them. Questions or ideas? Use the Feedback link in the header.