First Thing’s First

Good on you for staying up-to-date with your local government!  Here are direct links to the state and federal websites where bills and other info are posted:

PA Legislation
Federal Legislation

Here’s the breakdown of these different search functions.

Bill Number Format: HB 211 or HB211 / Format: SB 444 or SB444

In most of these entry fields, character case and spacing do not effect the results. The keyword or bill number fields will be the most commonly-used entries for most people. Your mileage may vary.

Keywords

When searching a bill by keyword, it is often best to use specific language to narrow down your results, in the event that you’re looking for one bill. For example, “gun” or “firearm” will return many results, whereas “magazine” or “caliber” may return fewer results.

If you’re looking for all bills that contain certain keywords, 

Amendment Number

Format: A01234 (ex: A 177 will return A00177)