Archives for February 2023

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The 118th Congress resulted with narrow majorities as the House Republicans claimed the lead, while Senate Democrats held on to their control. Through this gridlock, new members of Congress rise as star players as their new perspectives are turned into actionable items. 75 new lawmakers were introduced into the House, 40 of them are Republicans, and 35 are Democrats. Within the new members of the Senate, 5 are Republicans and 2 are Democrats. Together, the new Congress members bring with them more than 800 new staffers to Capitol Hill.

The new Congress is increasingly more reflective of the shifting demographic in America. The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse congress to date. A quarter of the members identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, or Alaska Native. The number of women in Congress is at an all-time high, and thirteen lawmakers identify as a lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The changing demographics in Congress will bring a wider range of perspective and voices to the legislative branch of the federal government.

Within this branch of government, comes the latest legislations that needs to work its way through the divided Congress. Currently, the Senate pushes for changes that will help with the China crackdown while reciprocation from the House remains uncertain. Meanwhile the national debt limit approaches and congressional members have varying perspectives on actions to take. Straightaway, new members of Congress are faced with pressing issues that require a general consensus.

Meet the New Movers and Shakers

Freshman Congress members attract the attention of policy influenced individuals, which is why it is important to understand their policy stance in order to discover the route to impactful change. POLITICO Pro subscribers have a direct line of contact with new power players of Congress followed by an organized setup of identifying, tracking, and engaging critical stakeholders. POLITICO Pro’s state of the art policy intelligence platform with features including Directories and Stakeholder Management allows you to broaden your reach and solidify your strategy for imperative policy decision making.

Commonly heard new Congress members’ names, such as Representative Monica De La Cruz or Senator John Fetterman, have taken action within the few weeks of taking office. Representative Monica De La Cruz has sponsored legislation, including Acts revolving around improving agriculture. Meanwhile, Senator John Fetterman cosponsored legislation to prohibit the gathering of certain worker data by employees.

Contact Policy Power Players

Whether your objective is to encourage legislators to support or oppose a legislation, or represent policy priorities on the behalf of your client; contacting a lawmaker, staffer, or committee is crucial to understanding a policy professional’s stance and how a productive conversation can be continued. POLITICO Pro’s Directories provide a simplified solution to search and filter contacts specific to your areas of interest including committee assignments, caucuses, leadership positions, congressional districts, and more. You can also quickly identify freshman Congress members by selecting “members” in the Result Type Box, then checking the “Freshman” box below Status.

Congressional Directory

Pro’s Congressional Directory is your source for noting representatives’ party affiliation, legislative activities, involvements with committees and caucuses, and social media activities. Filter through committees to view major and minority committee members and access staffer information associated with specific congressional members. Monitor legislative activities, such as the bills new Congress members have sponsored or cosponsored to gain a better insight into their policy stance and priorities. Take a peek at congressional members’ education, employment history, and associated organization memberships to find common parallels in their interests and background so you can draft a more personalized outreach. Pro Directories will serve as your asset to effortlessly connect with politicians, staffers, and other key contacts so you can make an impact on policy.

Pro Premium subscribers have access to additional new benefits, including Premium DataPoint Analysis. You can view Freshman Congress Members’ “Premium Bio” located to the right of the member’s name and within each member’s profile. Unlock in-depth analysis on each new Congress Member and gain a better insight on their policy perspectives.

Engage With Your Stakeholders

Now that you have built your list of contacts using Directories, you can use Stakeholder Management to take it one step further to organize and arrange methods of contact with your stakeholders. Send scheduled emails to those power players and keep track of top performing emails. Schedule meetings, record meeting satisfaction, monitor top attendees, and track meeting follow-ups. Stakeholder Management in unison with Directories serves as a powerful outreach tool that is designed for you to take advantage of reaching those critical contacts and leading efforts to make a change on policy.

Optimize Your Goals

Directories and Stakeholder Management are two of many features Pro has to offer to help you make policy moves. Utilize the entirety of Pro, including Legislative and Regulatory Trackers, to be fully equipped with unique insights and collaborative tools so your policy goals can advance. Learn more and request a free demo today!

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The 118th Congress is well underway. Congress being the legislative branch of federal government makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies. During each legislative session Congress introduces thousands of bills. With House Republicans holding a narrow majority and Democrats keeping the control of the Senate and the White House, it remains to be seen if Congress can pass substantive legislation in the next two years.

On the Senate side, things were off to a slow start. On Thursday, February 2, 2023, the Senate finally approved resolution to organize committee. Nevertheless, the members from both chambers collectively introduced more than 1,000 legislation in January. The legislation include amending the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, extending the Federal Pell Grant Eligibility, curbing President Joe Biden’s ability to tap the nation’s petroleum reserves, and more.

Monitor Vital Policy Movements

The total number of bills, resolutions, and amendments that make it to Congress varies from year to year. The 117th Congress introduced more than 17,000 pieces of legislation. Out of the more than 15,000 joint resolutions and bills, 365 eventually found their way to the President’s desk and became laws. While most bills do not make it out of committees or subcommittees, it is imperative for policy professionals to stay on top of important legislative developments. Current impactful bills that are making their way through Congress include:

The information overload for lobbyists, legislative aides, policy analysts, political consultants, and government relations managers can be overwhelming. Staying on top of legislative movements, making sense of changes from introduction to enactment, evaluating a bill’s impact on private and public sectors and individuals, and sharing information with others can cause many hurdles.

Access Complete Information

POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that includes one of the most comprehensive bill trackers on the market. Pro’s Legislative Compass is a powerful, intelligent bill tracking tool that provides a complete source of federal legislative information with more than 25 years of data. For those who also need to effectively influence legislation on the state level, Legislative Compass also has more than 10 years of data across all 50 states.

Pro’s bill tracker allows you to follow actions on a bill from inception to passage. Coupled with POLITICO’s nonpartisan, in-depth reporting, and Premium Bill Analysis, you will have the information you need to strategize early and know when to pivot to a new strategy to reach the most favorable outcomes. Pro’s Legislative Compass is designed for busy policy professionals like you who need insightful updates with minimal noise, to understand the impact quickly, and to share information with your team to ensure alignment.

Every bill introduced in Congress is available in Pro’s bill tracker. Uncover details effortlessly, including sponsors and co-sponsors, bill text, bill version comparison, CRS summaries, similar bills, latest actions, roll call votes, related news, analysis, and documents such as transcripts and committee reports.

Track Spending Bills

The 12 annual federal spending bills or appropriations bills are one of the most significant legislation. The spending bills set appropriate federal funds for specific federal government, agencies, and programs. The money is used to fund hundreds of programs and pay for the operations, personnel, equipment, and activities of those programs. At the end of 2022, Congress passed a $1.7 Trillion omnibus spending bill. Our Pro platform has a dedicated Appropriations Tracker within the Legislative Compass. The tracker monitors spending bills with straightforward visualizations and gives you access to key documents in a single, easy-to-view display.

Organize Your Information and Align Your Team

To help you weed through the chaff, our Tracked Bill capabilities allows you to add bills you are following to Project folders and set email alert options based on your preference. Public policy is a team sport. Collaborate with your team, define and communicate your organization’s policy position and priority to coordinate actions and keep your team focused on the most crucial legislation. Through Pro, you can set up different group Project folders to share information with the appropriate colleagues who are also Pro users.

Leverage the Platform for Policy Success

Legislative Compass is one of the policy tools within the Pro platform. To fully unleash your policy leadership and potential use Pro Directories to find key lawmakers and policy influencers and reach out to those contacts using Pro’s integrated Stakeholder Management solution. Learn more about how Pro can help you navigate Congressional gridlock and find a through lane to your intended destination.