Policy Search

1. Introduction
2. Policy Search Video
3. Policy Search - Bills
4. Policy Search - Regulations
5. Best Practices 1-Pager

Introduction

Policy Search is one of the most common searches in FiscalNote.  It is the fastest way to find a specific policy document that requires monitoring or investigation.  Use the instructions and best practices outlined below to perform a successful Policy Search.

Policy Search - Video

How to Perform a Policy Search - Bills

Clicking into the Search bar produces a pop-up panel with available datasets to browse.  These may include State Bills and Federal Bills, for example.  To perform a Policy Search for bills, select the appropriate dataset first:

*Depending on your subscription package, you may have less options than shown in the GIF below. 

After selecting a dataset, you will see a tab in the Search bar indicating the type of content you are about to Search through.

In this example, we have chosen State Bills because we know we need to look for an enacted Vehicle Safety bill from Maryland that requires review and we already know the bill number.  When performing a Policy Search for State Legislation, always use the State abbreviation, chamber designation, and bill number.  Leave a space between each:

After you have found the policy document that requires attention, we recommend adding it to a corresponding Issue for tracking and/or reporting purposes.  To do so, hover over the [+] sign on the top left of the exact match and click the appropriate Issue name:

*When searching Federal Bills, you only need to enter the chamber designation and bill number

How to Perform a Policy Search - Regulations

When searching for a Regulation as opposed to a Bill, the same logic applies when selecting a dataset. 

In this example, we have been alerted to a Regulation in Maryland published a few years ago about School Vehicle Inspections and need to locate it, so we would first select State Rules & Notices.  

However, as Regulations follow a different naming mechanism than Bills, we suggest browsing by title.  As a best practice, always put the title in quotation marks as seen here:

If the title doesn't help, try searching by putting the accompanying alpha-numeric code (if available) in quotation marks. 

If necessary, Filters such as 'Comment Deadline' are available to drill-down into the results further.  In this continued example from Maryland, we could skim the small amount of matches, or use the States Filter on the left:

If you see what appears to be a duplicate, read the details on the match -- you may come across both the Proposed and Final versions in the results. 

Similar to Bill monitoring, we recommend adding the desired Regulation to a corresponding Issue.  Doing so allows for monitoring, easy access and sharing with colleagues all Regulations being monitored in the future.

To recap, follow these brief steps to perform a successful Policy Search:

1. Click the appropriate dataset (Bills or Regulations)
2. Type the Bill number with state and chamber abbreviations. Or, type the Regulation title or alpha-numeric code in quotation marks.
3. Add the Bill or Regulation to a corresponding Issue for tracking and reporting purposes