Policy briefs are concise, written documents that provide policymakers with a clear understanding of an issue and suggest policy options based on research, analysis, and evidence.

When effective, policy briefs can be used to advance your organization’s goals, influence decision-making, position yourself or your organization as a thought leader, and more!

Need help getting started? Download our fully-customizable policy brief template and start writing your effective policy brief today!

The post Public Policy Brief Template appeared first on Plural Policy.

Here are four options to access Plural’s 2024 Legislative Sessions Calendar. Choose the one that’s best for you:

1. Google Calendar: Add the calendar directly to your Google Calendar using this link.
2. Outlook or Other Calendars: Add the calendar as a public calendar through Outlook or other calendar applications. (Outlook instructions)
3. View Online: View and bookmark the calendar online here. 
4. Download a PDF: View and download a PDF of session start dates and expected adjournment.

A few things to note:

• The majority of legislative sessions begin within the first two weeks of January and end between late March and mid-May.
• 15 states are scheduled to have significantly shorter sessions than in 2023. Only 4 states are scheduled to have significantly longer sessions.
• Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia will enter 2024 with the most new legislators after those states held regular legislative elections this fall.
• 4 states (Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas) only host regular sessions during even-numbered years, and do not have a regular session scheduled for 2024.
• 4 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Congress meet throughout the entirety of the year and do not generally have a typical end-of-session adjournment scheduled.

More Resources for Public Policy Professionals

2024 118th Congress Report

Guide to Preparing for Congressional Testimony

Upcoming Changes to Party Leadership in Congress

The post 2024 Legislative Sessions Calendar appeared first on Plural Policy.

Analyzing Voting Rights Legislation in 2023

Debates around voting rights have always been central to American political discourse. The 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries saw the expansion of the right to vote to religious minorities, people of color and women. However, the statutory right to vote was never the end goal for voting rights advocates. The civil rights movement, particularly the Voting Rights Act of 1965, drove our nation nearer to fair and equal democratic participation.

Policy impacting voting rights is a priority issue for state legislators, intensified by contentious national elections and imperfect systems.

The 2024 elections are quickly approaching. As of July 2023, state legislators have introduced 1,188 bills impacting voting rights. Eighty bills have made it through the legislative process to become law. Understanding this activity, including how and where it is playing out, is key to understanding democracy. We leveraged Plural’s data analyze legislation affecting voting rights and access so far in 2023.

In our analysis, we focused on legislation that expanded or limited access to vote. For example, legislation increasing early vote time is categorized as expanding, while legislation restricting mail-in voting is categorized as restricting. While important to monitor, legislation unrelated to the ability to vote, like bills that regulate ballot-counting devices, were not considered.

Looking Ahead to 2024

Following the 2020 elections, voting rights became a central issue in 2022 campaigns as well as the 2023 legislative sessions. As we approach another contentious national election in 2024, attention on voting policy will continue to grow. Plural is committed to analyzing the trends in this space to help the public understand our democratic processes. 

Get Started with Plural

Plural helps you get and stay ahead in the complex public policy landscape. With Plural, you can:

• Access superior public policy data
• Be the first to know about new bills and changes in bill status
• Streamline your day with seamless organization features
• Harness the power of AI to gain insights into individual bills and the entire legislative landscape
• Keep everyone on the same page with internal collaboration and external reporting all in one place

How Vote Mama Lobby Empowers Moms By Using Plural for Tracking Policy

Vote Mama Lobby is dedicated to transforming the political landscape for moms. Its team advocates to break the institutional barriers moms face in running for and serving in office, and gives voice to the solutions that allow everyday families to thrive.  Vote Mama Foundation is a leading non-partisan 501(c)(3) entity that provides research and analysis […]

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Here’s Why Leadership Wants Your GR, Legal & Compliance Teams to Use AI

In an era of accelerating regulation, geopolitical uncertainty, and rising stakeholder expectations, the margin for error in corporate governance has never been thinner. For senior leaders — CEOs, GCs, COOs, and Chief Risk Officers — ensuring that their legal, compliance, and government relations (GR) teams are equipped to respond quickly and strategically is essential. Enter […]

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What I Learned from Working at a Startup Company as a College Student

By Jay Oliveira My time at Plural has been transformative.  As a third-year policy student at Suffolk University in Boston, I had already spent hours pouring over legislative websites for my coursework. I struggled to use legislative sources that would open up dozens of unreadable files, or would make it unclear what chamber the bill […]

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The post Legislation Affecting Voting Rights and Access in 2023 appeared first on Plural Policy.

The work was interesting, but also tedious because of the policy tracking tools (or lack of) that I was working with.

The most common way to learn about policies and laws is by visiting a state legislatures’ website. Some telltale signs that you’re on the state website include:

• A “.gov” web address
• A state seal in the navigation bar

Using State Legislature Websites to Research & Track Policy

State government websites are a great resource. They contain loads of information about a state’s operations — the agencies and programs that make things work smoothly. They’re a useful tool for anyone to get vital information.

However, the process of maneuvering through state government websites is not always easy. State legislature websites are often bloated with words and hyperlinks. Confusing navigation and a lack of mobile responsiveness only add to these issues. A lack of user-friendly tools can impede research and make for a negative experience.

For instance, let’s take a look at the Montana Legislature’s website.

Navigating to the Montana Legislature’s website, you expect a clear pathway to finding the state’s laws and legislative information. However, the experience quickly becomes a challenge. Upon entering the site, you’re faced with a complex navigation system, where information seems hidden within a maze of links and tabs. 

Attempting to use the search function leads to further confusion, as it doesn’t guide you to the specific information you’re looking for. Switching to a different device only exacerbates the problem, as the outdated design of the website does not adapt well to varying screen sizes. 

The Montana Legislature’s website, with its intricate layout, archaic design, inefficient search functionality, and slow responsiveness, turns the essential task of understanding state laws into a taxing experience.

Plural: The Better Policy Tracking Tool

For public policy professionals, researchers, advocates and lobbyists, navigating through clunky state legislative websites slows down their work. There is often no way to track legislation, meaning that it’s confusing to understand where a bill is in the legislative process and leading policy pros to miss crucial updates. Further, legislation appears as PDFs, making it difficult to process complex bill text. And on top of that, each state’s website is distinct, and equally hard to navigate. Policy pros that work across states will have to replicate this tedious process for each respective state legislative website.

Using a policy tracking tool like Plural will streamline your public policy work and enhance your effectiveness. 

• Plural is easy to use, with a simple and unified interface so all legislation looks the same, regardless of the state it originated from.
• On Plural, bill text is digital, rather than a PDF – digital text makes it easy to work with the text, meaning that copying text or commenting on a bill is seamless rather than tedious. 
• With Plural, it’s easier than ever to organize complicated public policy work. Bills can be organized or tagged, and users can track bills and receive notifications as bills continue through the legislative process.
• Plural works just as well when viewed on different devices or screen sizes, making it the best legislative tracking tool for busy teams on the go.

Get Started with Plural

Want to experience the difference yourself? Get started with the best policy tracking tool today.

The post Comparing Policy Tracking Tools: State Websites vs. Plural appeared first on Plural Policy.

What is ESG Investing?

Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is an investment strategy involving the consideration of a company’s environmental impact, social impact and governance history. These considerations are used to determine whether and where they will invest funds. ESG is also referred to as socially responsible investing or sustainable investing.

Interest in ESG investing has grown in the private sector. As a result, many large investing firms have begun to offer information about the impact of investments. This offers flexibility for investors to put their money towards “better” investments. The European Union (EU) has been the epicenter of ESG investing. The EU has taken steps to improve corporate transparency and aid ESG. For example, the EU increased reporting requirements for financial firms and companies.

ESG Legislation and Regulation

Regulatory action on ESG investing in the United States had been sparse. However, there has been an increase in legislation on ESG investing. This growth has occurred at both the state and federal levels. The trend is driven by recent actions by the Biden administration as well as Republicans’ focus on the so-called “culture wars.”

Over two-thirds of U.S. state legislatures have considered anti-ESG legislation in 2023, and 14 states have enacted legislation restricting the use of ESG factors in public investments and procurements. On the other side of the debate, just one pro-ESG bill has become law and only 11 states have even considered such legislation. While consumer demand for ESG investing has grown, the data in this report shows a wave of anti-ESG legislation rising to challenge that trend. 

The Plural team sought to better understand legislation regarding ESG investing. To do so, we analyzed the 2023 legislative sessions of all 50 states, US Congress and Washington, DC. This data is up-to-date as of July 19, 2023.

Key Findings

ESG investing has become a prevalent topic of discussion in state legislatures across the country. Understanding the state-of-play in these debates will allow you to be better prepared for their next iterations.

Overall, it’s unclear how states will progress in this space as well as how new laws will impact our economy at-large. At Plural, we’re committed to increasing government transparency. This involves shedding light on laws under consideration and analyzing their impact on our communities.

The post ESG Legislation in the First Six Months of 2023 appeared first on Plural Policy.

It can be tempting to tie any legislative trend to a single event. However, mass shootings have become so common in the United States that it’s difficult to identify the exact motivation leading to legislation. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. is on track for over 600 mass shootings this year. 2023 will be the fourth straight year of this high rate of gun violence. With this violence, it’s safe to assume that a desire to save lives motivates much of this legislation.

Gun control laws are a mainstay within U.S. political discourse. Given this fact, the Plural team sought to examine gun control policy in the first half of 2023. We leveraged Plural’s legislative dataset, categorizing legislation according to whether it increased or decreased access to firearms.

Read the full report to see our analysis of legislation impacting access to firearms throughout the first six months of 2023.

Key Takeaways

Data on gun policy shows us how many of the trends of the past decade continue to play out. It should also remind us that state legislatures are constantly introducing and passing new policies.

States like Florida and Washington continue to trend toward opposite positions. At the same time, states like Utah, Michigan and Minnesota have proven to be factories of significant change. Understanding this continuing, heated debate requires an understanding of both the policy being introduced, which may set the conversation, and the policy being enacted, which will affect conditions in our communities.

The post Legislating Access to Firearms in 2023 appeared first on Plural Policy.

A Growth in Consumer Demand for Electric Vehicles

Consumer demand for EVs has grown rapidly. A decade ago, EVs accounted for less than 1% of total car sales. In 2021, they accounted for nearly 5% of total sales. Legislators across the country are racing to enact policy to accommodate this growth.

Plural’s Analysis of Electric Vehicle Policy

Harnessing Plural’s unmatched legislative data, our team analyzed legislation surrounding EVs so far in 2023. Read our report to see our findings.

Electric vehicle policy is a growing trend. These bills may affect the pace of EV transition and the automotive industry’s impact on the environment. Using Plural’s data, it’s clear that the first six months of 2023 have been the busiest for EV policy in history. These changes will drive electric vehicle policy development through the rest of 2023 and into next year. Understanding the state of play at this moment is important to prepare for that activity.

The post A Look at Electric Vehicle Policy in 2023 appeared first on Plural Policy.

If you don’t report it, it didn’t happen, right? And if you can’t find the data you need to document all of your work throughout the session, you can’t report on it. 

Creating a legislative report is key to proving the impact of your role, your team and your organization. It showcases the tangible results of your work to your board, stakeholders and community members.

Need help getting started? Download our end-of-session report template today!

The post End-of-Session Report Template appeared first on Plural Policy.

So far in 2023, the partisan divide over gender identity, especially within education and healthcare settings, has generated a significant increase in legislation impacting transgender and nonbinary communities.

The research team at Plural is committed to monitoring legislative trends throughout the country. As we analyzed the 2023 legislative sessions, we were particularly surprised by the volume of bills targeting transgender and nonbinary rights. We leveraged Plural’s legislative data to better understand this trend. The data presented in this report is up-to-date as of Monday, June 26, 2023.

The post Legislation Impacting Transgender and Nonbinary Rights and Visibility in 2023 appeared first on Plural Policy.

Need help getting started? Download our free, fully-customizable stakeholder mapping visualization tool and supercharge your stakeholder engagement strategy!

The post Stakeholder Mapping Tool appeared first on Plural Policy.