Learn how technology can give your team a competitive edge.
Anyone who works in public policy will tell you that networking is a crucial part of the job. The nitty-gritty work of creating a coalition or gathering support often happens during in-person meetings or off-the-cuff hallway conversations.
So it was no surprise that public policy workers were skeptical of digital transformation changing how policy is created. Then the pandemic hit. Suddenly, human interaction went completely online and using digital tools to gather intelligence became crucial.
Now that we’re working in a hybrid world, technology is helping public policy teams collaborate more quickly too, whether they’re working to lift an issue up or tear it down. In-person and online.
Case in point. Public policy workers looking for key legislative data don’t have to search through slow, clunky state-run websites anymore. Today, legislative tracking software helps them understand the big picture across all 50 states.
Knowing first can mean the difference between being informed or being influential. After all, the sooner you know what bills are getting traction, the sooner you can rally your base, report back to your members, or hold legislators accountable.
Below, we’ve rounded up some ways technology is helping public policy teams do just that.
Impacting Language on Bills As They Evolve
Being in the know faster can inform your lobbying efforts for maximum effectiveness.
Let’s say your public policy team is working on legislation for police officers wearing body cameras while on duty. It’s unlikely that every bill will include your preferred clauses or sections.
If you know the phrase “Only law enforcement officers with the authority to conduct searches and make arrests shall be permitted to wear a body camera” has a better chance of passing, then you can suggest that to bill authors.
Rather than checking a legislature website or visiting the legislature yourself, you can take advantage of technology that notifies you about changes in a bill’s language. Then, you can share your preferred language directly with the bill’s author, improving your chances of getting a bill you want headed towards a vote.
You can also collaborate on legislation session strategy within your public policy software. Once the author backs your bill language, you can tell everyone on your team to begin putting their efforts behind this new version of the bill right away. A quick email to your base gets everyone on the same page about next steps.
Acting on Crucial Updates Affecting Your Issue
When Georgia passed a law making it illegal to hand out food and water to those waiting in line to vote in 2021, two Plural clients—Pro Georgia and America Votes Georgia—were notified about the law’s updated language right away via the bill monitoring feature on Plural.
With Georgia legislators using stall tactics to avoid releasing the language in the bill as long as possible, not having to rely on manual checking of the Georgia legislature website paid off. Both groups got the intelligence they needed to spring into action.
Not only did they receive a notification about the language in the bill, but the information was also easier to ingest. Plural’s color coding feature made it easy to see the changes in language from previous bills and understand the situation at hand more clearly.
Taking Advantage of Intelligent Search
Technology has also made following issue developments far more effortless, speeding up how quickly public policy teams can spring into action.
From having live news updates on our phones at all times to tools that make it as easy to collaborate across oceans as it is across a conference table, software specifically built for policy professionals can truly transform the way teams work together and supercharge their bandwidth.
For example, Plural allows you to customize your search so your team knows to take action when it matters most. You can search by state, issue, legislator, or bill number.
With its new Saved Search feature, you can also set up your search to show any movement happening within a specific period, like the first two weeks of session or the last two weeks of session. You can save that search to target key areas of information.
With a tool like this, you get to call the shots. You can set up alerts to show you what you’re most interested in, cutting down the time it takes to search through multiple state websites.
No matter your issue—climate change, voting rights, healthcare reform, immigration, education, or something completely different—public policy software can simplify and streamline your efforts.
Bottom line? Having all of your issue’s moving pieces in one central place can help your team zero in on what updates matter to you and which language changes are going to have the greatest impact on your efforts.
