A Simpler Way to Navigate the Legislative Website

Getting to know your legislators:

  • Want to email your Senator?  Here's where to find the address.
  • Ditto for your State Representative.
  • Note: If you click on their name, you'll be taken to a page just about them, with phone number and address and often with a link to their personal website.
  • Don't know the names of your legislators?  Here's where to find them!

Getting to know legislation:

  • Want to find a bill you've heard about?  You can search for a keyword or by the bill number on the right side of the page here.
  • And once you've found the bill, it's easy to find out where it is in the process by clicking Current Bill History on the left side of the screen.
  • How did your legislator vote on a bill?  When you are looking at that Current Bill History, note where it says Passed House (or Senate).  Click the journal page number beside that entry (For example, S.J. 265), and it will give you the Ayes and Nays on the vote.
  • Need to attend a committee hearing?  The list of committee meetings and their locations is here.  And if you need help finding the room, there is a virtual tour of the Capitol, along with maps, here.

Getting to know about lobbyists:

Here's how to search for how a lobbyist has declared on a bill.

And here is other lobbyist information.

Back to basics:

Here's the link to the main site for the Iowa General Assembly.

Connecting from your smartphone?  Here's a link to the mobile site.

And other informative links:

2012 IACCT Legislative Priorities
These legislative priorities were adopted by the IACCT Membership on July 27, 2011 at their Annual Conference.

Voter Information for Iowa Residents - Register to vote, find your polling place. 

League of Women Voters of Iowa - Non partisan legislative and election information is available here. 

Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board - Has information on ethics, lobbying, campaign contributions, and a section on laws, rules, and opinions. 

The American Association of Community Colleges' Advocacy page - Position papers, information on current legislation, key committees, and other useful information. 

Educause Public Policy Site - Educause, of course, is the organization whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Their well-researched policy site Includes white papers, research, federal bill tracking, and calls to action.

Project Vote Smart - Founded in 1992, this group is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that does not accept money from lobbyists, governmental organizations, corporations, labor unions or other special interests. This link is to its main page where you can enter your 9-digit zip code and find all of your elected representatives - state and federal.  We'll come back to its other offerings.