Navigating Federal Legislation: Following Bills in Congress
From All-Creatures.org Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies Articles Archive

FROM Animals & Society Institute
January 2020

If you’re interested in policy issues related to animals, you need to be familiar with bills in Congress.

If you’re interested in policy issues related to animals, you need to be familiar with bills in Congress. That requires familiarizing yourself with resources available online and from several national animal advocacy organizations.

To be informed and responsive, you need to:

• Keep track of bills as they are introduced and move through the system
• Be aware of important developments on bills that require action (i.e., contacting your US. Senator or Representative, alerting your community, writing letters, etc.)

Keeping track: GovTrack is a reputable site that is a database that also provides analysis: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/. 

You can set up alerts based on subject matter here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/#find.

 “Animals” is one of the categories; there are 12 subcategories: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/subjects/animals/5840.

You will receive an email alert whenever a bill is introduced, or other action is taken (e.g., co-sponsors added; committee hearings; votes) on the bills you select. Since there are 75 bills in the “Animals” category as of January 17, 2020, you’ll want to narrow your search to areas of particular interest.

Responding to important developments: since time is of the essence when an important vote is being taken, or other action is being considered, you can sign up for email “action alerts” from various national organizations and follow their blogs for additional information and context. These are some of the organizations that follow federal bills:

• American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: https://www.aspca.org/take-action/advocacy-center;  https://secure.aspca.org/take-action/join-mobile-action-team
• American Anti-Vivisection Society: https://aavs.org/take-action/
• Animal Legal Defense Fund: https://aldf.org/how_we_work/legislation/
• Animal Welfare Institute: https://awionline.org/content/federal-legislation;  e-alerts sign up: https://awionline.org/compassion-index#/
• Animal Wellness Action: https://animalwellnessaction.org/action-alerts/;  and blog: https://animalwellnessaction.org/the-political-animal/
• Humane Society Legislative Fund: e-news sign up: http://www.hslf.org/;  blog: https://blog.hslf.org/  

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