Advanced Search Techniques

How-To Guide

What This Does

This guide explains how to use Simple, Advanced, and Query searches to find specific bills. You will also learn how to apply filters to refine your search results for greater precision.

When You’d Use This

  • You need to find a specific bill using its number or a simple keyword.
  • You want to combine multiple search terms, requiring that results include some terms while excluding others.
  • You need to construct a complex search using Boolean operators, exact phrases, or proximity searches.
  • You want to narrow down a broad set of search results by criteria like bill status, sponsor, or committee.

How To Do It

You can find bills using three different search methods: Simple, Advanced, and Query.

Use Simple Search

Use this for basic searches by bill number, keyword, or state prefix.

  1. Select the Simple tab.
  2. Enter your search term in the search bar. For example:
    • Bill number: 123 or SB 1
    • Keyword: gas prices
    • State prefix and bill number: TX 245

Use Advanced Search

Use this to combine keywords with AND, OR, and NOT logic.

  1. Select the Advanced tab.
  2. Enter keywords or phrases into the appropriate fields:
    • All of these (AND): Results must contain every term entered here.
    • At least one (OR): Results must contain at least one of the terms entered here.
    • None of these (NOT): Results will exclude any bills containing these terms.

Use Query Search

Use this to build a custom search string with operators for the most precise results.

  1. Select the Query tab.
  2. Enter your search string into the text box using supported operators.
    • AND: Narrows your search. Example: fees AND retail
    • OR: Broadens your search. Example: credit OR debit
    • NOT: Excludes terms from your search. Example: fees NOT retail
    • Exact-match quotes (""): Finds an exact phrase. Example: "payment card"
    • Proximity search (~N): Finds terms within a specific number of words of each other. Example: "state affairs"~5 finds state and affairs within 5 words of each other.

Apply Filters to Your Search

After running a search, you can apply filters to narrow the results.

  1. Click the Filters button to open the filter panel.
  2. Select values from the available filter categories, which include:
    • Keywords
    • States & Jurisdictions
    • Session years
    • Bill type
    • Bill status
    • Legislative Progress
    • Sponsors and Co-sponsors
    • Committees
    • Political affiliation
  3. Click Advanced Filters to open a new window where you can manually include or exclude specific bills from your results.

What Happens Next

The system displays a list of bills that match your search criteria and any applied filters. The results are organized under tabs for Bills, News, Hearings, and Directories.

Pro Tips

  • Save your complex searches for future use. After running an Advanced or Query search, click Save this search to keywords to create a Keyword Alert.
  • In the Query tab, click the Supported Operators link to see a full guide on how to construct powerful search queries.