BillTrack50
Legislative bill tracking across all 50 US states, DC, and Congress — with AI summaries and executive order mapping.
What should journalists know about BillTrack50?
BillTrack50 aggregates legislative data from all 50 state legislatures, DC, and Congress into one searchable database going back to 2011. Founded in Denver by Karen Suhaka (previously built oil-and-gas production databases), the platform is a small-team operation — not VC-backed. The free tier lets anyone search and view unlimited bills in the current session with AI-generated plain-English summaries. Paid plans unlock saved searches, daily email alerts, historical data, committee staff directories, and embeddable bill lists. The 2025 additions matter: an Executive Order Tool maps presidential orders to responsive state legislation using AI similarity scoring, and a regulation tracking module covers state and federal rulemaking from 2024 onward. For journalists, the core value is cross-state keyword monitoring — set an alert for 'book ban' or 'AI regulation' and get daily digests instead of checking 51 legislature sites. The API (5 req/sec, 5,000/day cap) is adequate for data journalism but won't support real-time dashboards. Competitors like Plural offer real-time alerts and slicker UI; LegiScan has deeper API access and international coverage. BillTrack50's edge is price: the free tier is genuinely useful, and per-state pricing is cheaper than enterprise competitors for newsrooms covering a handful of states.
Tracking bills across multiple state legislatures simultaneously. Setting keyword alerts for policy beats (education, healthcare, AI, gun legislation). Monitoring committee actions and floor votes. Building legislative databases for reporting projects. Mapping executive orders to responsive state legislation. Regulation tracking for rulemaking in specific states.
Real-time legislative alerts (BillTrack50 sends daily digests, not instant notifications — use Plural for that). Historical research before 2011 (coverage varies by state even after that). Bill text analysis or legal interpretation. Lobbying and campaign finance data (use OpenSecrets/FollowTheMoney). Non-US legislation (use LegiScan for some international). Sophisticated policy analytics or AI-driven trend forecasting.
Security & Privacy
Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers
Data is scrambled when stored on their servers
Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data
Privacy policy summary
Collects name, email, postal address, phone number, IP address, browser type, and OS. Uses analytics cookies but no third-party advertising trackers. Does not store credit card data in its own systems. Does not collect or process what it classifies as 'sensitive information.' The underlying legislative data is public record. Your tracked bills, saved searches, and alert keywords are stored on LegiNation servers — this reveals your reporting interests to the company.
How to protect yourself:
The free tier requires email registration — use a non-personal address if you want to obscure your identity. Cross-reference BillTrack50 data with official legislature websites for the most current status; there can be a 24-hour lag since data updates nightly. Use keyword alerts strategically to avoid notification overload. The API has a hard cap of 5,000 requests/day — plan data pulls accordingly. For sensitive investigations, remember that your tracked bills and search patterns are visible to LegiNation.
Standard SaaS platform with HTTPS throughout. Account required for most features. The data you're searching is public legislative information, but your tracked bills, saved searches, and alert keywords are stored on LegiNation's servers and reveal your reporting interests. No third-party ad trackers, which is good. No published SOC 2 or independent security audit. Bootstrapped small team means security practices are likely proportional to company size — adequate for public legislative data, but don't assume enterprise-grade protections for your usage patterns.
Who Owns This
Known issues
Daily alerts only — no real-time notifications when bills move, which puts you behind competitors like Plural. The UI is dated and cluttered; finding specific features takes trial and error. Bill sheets have row limits and can lose data during connectivity issues. Search results can feel incomplete or stale compared to state legislature sites. Regulation coverage only begins in 2024, so no historical regulatory data. API rate limits (5 req/sec, 5,000/day) are tight for serious data journalism. Mobile app (iOS/Android) works but has limited reviews and basic functionality. State data quality varies — BillTrack50 is only as good as the feeds each legislature publishes.
Pricing
Free tier for unlimited bill search and viewing in current session, including AI summaries. Paid Pro subscriptions: $1,000/state/year for legislation tracking, $500/state/year for regulation tracking. Automatically upgrades to Unlimited national pricing at 6+ states. Annual billing required; monthly payment option available by credit card. API access included at all paid tiers. Pricing restructured November 2024 — all products bundled into per-state price.
This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-02, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.
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