How Do Keywords Work Across Bills?

Feature Overview

What This Is

This guide explains how keyword searches find matching bills and how you can use different search techniques to get more precise results.

Why It Matters

Understanding how keyword searches work helps you build effective queries to find the exact legislation you need. This saves you time and ensures you don't miss critical updates.

Key Components

How Keyword Matching Works

The system searches for your keywords in several parts of a bill, including:* Bill Number* Title* Description and Summaries* The full text of the bill* The full text of any amendments* Sponsor names

Search Types

You can search for bills using three different methods:* Simple Search: Use this for basic searches of a single word, an exact phrase in quotes, or a bill number.* Advanced Search: Use the guided fields to combine concepts using All of these words (AND), Any of these words (OR), and None of these words (NOT).* Query Search: Build your own complex searches using specific operators for maximum control.

Building Effective Queries

Use operators to refine your searches in the Query Search bar.* Use AND to narrow results: Finds bills that contain all of your specified terms. * Example: fees AND retail* Use OR to broaden results: Finds bills that contain at least one of your specified terms. This is useful for synonyms. * Example: credit OR debit* Use NOT to exclude results: Removes bills that contain a specific term you want to avoid. * Example: fees NOT retail* Use "exact phrases" for precision: Use double quotes to find words that must appear together in that exact order. * Example: "interchange fee"* Use ~N for proximity: Find words within a certain number of words of each other. The words can appear in any order. * Example: "state affairs"~5 will find state and affairs within 5 words of each other.

When You Get New Results

A bill will reappear in your keyword search results any time it is updated. This includes events such as:* Changes to the bill's language* The addition of an amendment* Any movement in the legislative process, such as a status change