How to Uncover and Monitor New Policy

1. Introduction
2. Uncovering New Policy
3. Monitoring New Policy

Introduction 

Staying on top of the most recently introduced policy can prove difficult.  Volume is one of the top concerns -- with well over 250,000 bills introduced between federal and state sessions in 2020 alone, finding the most important policy documents can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. 

FiscalNote's Discovery Alerts help you solve that problem.  Rather than sit on a search engine and click refresh to check for updates, get a curated list of relevant new bills or regulations in one email. 

From there, choose the new matches that actually need monitoring and receive emails on future activity for those selections.  

Uncovering New Policy

Use Discovery Alerts to notify you of potentially impactful new policy. You can create New Discovery Alerts in two ways:

Saved Search:

1. Type in a keyword and include boolean modifiers for more specific queries in the Search Bar.
2. Select the Document Type.
3. Use the Filters on the left panel.
4. Save the Search.
5. Tick the box for "Also create Discovery Alert from this search."
6. Customize your settings as needed.

Discovery Alert Page:

1. 1. Click on the Create Discovery Alert button.
   2. Select the Document Type.
   3. Input the keywords.
   4. Add the Legislatures.
   5. Select how often you want to be notified or if you want to be notified via email.
   6. Save the New Alert.

Best Practices for Uncovering New Policy 

• Make your Discovery Alert titles topic-based and easy to remember.
• Match the alert title to a corresponding Issue folder name whenever possible.
• Review matches daily. Check email for results on new policy that can have immediate consequences for your organization.
• If your daily totals become consistently too large (50+), revisit your Discovery Alert keywords and/or contact your Client Success Manager for assistance.

FiscalNote’s Discovery Alerts automatically search for relevant bills or regulations and send email notifications when new matches are introduced.

Monitoring New Policy

FiscalNote's Issues Management platform is designed to monitor policy for you. Organize your Discovery Alert matches that matter, and FiscalNote will deliver emails with updates on future activity.

• Go to your Alerts Tab.
• Select the data set you want to monitor.
• Use the filters to view data from a specific time frame, relevance, last action, date introduced, legislature, etc.
• When you find a policy that needs monitoring, add it to your Issues by clicking the Add to Issue button at the top or clicking the "+" sign beside the bill card.
• Select the Issue Folder you want to add it to.

Best Practices for Monitoring New Policy

• After reviewing your daily Discovery Alert updates, add the most important matches to Issues.
• Toggle between Bills and Regulations to ensure you’ve browsed all policy matches.
• Use Discovery Alert inbox filters to find matches by legislature or relevance, for example.
• Use a system to review your Discovery Alert inbox. The most common approaches implement one of two goals: (1) Reduce inbox total to 0, or (2) Reduce ‘Read’ total to 0.

Getting notified of a potentially important new bill or regulation is half the battle.

FiscalNote’s Issues Management system takes care of the other half for you. Add the important matches to your Issues, and FiscalNote will send you an email notification if any future activity occurs.

Note: We are constantly updating the platform. Help us keep the Help Center current by reporting any outdated information to support@fiscalnote.com.