Legislative Action Information

Contacting legislators is intimidating to the average citizen, but you must remember that your legislator is an average citizen also. They all put their pants (or pantyhose) on one leg at a time.

The internet has made researching legislative bills so simple it is amazing! To find information pertaining to bills in the legislative process and the legislators acting on them try these simple steps:

The state of Massachusetts general information homepage is http://www.mass.gov/

Find Government links and under State click onto Legislature – this will offer you choices of General Court, House or Senate sites. General Court is the best choice to begin your search.

The direct link to the General Court page is http://www.mass.gov/legis/ and this page offers a wide array of search choices and information.

Under Current Legislation you can look up the exact text of a bill by clicking onto Text of House or Text of Senate bills. Enter the bill number in the search box that says Find Text For. Make sure you enter House bills in the House box, and Senate bills in the Senate box!

Search Bill History and see what committees have looked at the bill and where it is now in the legislative process.

Under Laws you will find General Laws and then click on Search the General Laws; you can read the wording of existing laws by entering the chapter and section – if you know it- of the law you want to review. If you don’t know the section, enter Chapter number and search from there.

Under Committee listings you can find the committee that is handling the current bill that you are interested in, and the committee members and their contact information can be found from that location.

Don’t be afraid to “click around” and investigate. There are websites that teach how to use and understand the legislative process, and take the mystery out of our government.

ACOAM needs active members to voice their thoughts to their legislators when bills come up for consideration, in support or opposition. If you find a piece of legislation that you think ACOAOM should be looking at, contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If you have an opinion on a bill, let ACOAM know your thoughts! We need the input of members to know what they want from this organization.