Center for Effective Lawmaking

Center for Effective Lawmaking

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Vanderbilt University

Announcing the Release of the 193rd Massachusetts General Court and the 93rd Minnesota Legislature (2023-2024) Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 193rd Massachusetts General Court and the 93rd Minnesota Legislature (2023-2024) Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 193rd Massachusetts General Court and the 93rd Minnesota Legislature (2023-2024) Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 193rd Massachusetts General Court (2023-2024) and the 93rd Minnesota Legislature (2023-2024) legislative sessions. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States. These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of…

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April 23, 2026
Cover Bills
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research

Cover Bills

Cover Bills Tuesday, April 21, 2026Legislators sometimes vote on bills that fail but, in the process, allow lawmakers to take an extreme position before ultimately voting to compromise. These proposals are commonly known as cover bills. Through two survey experiments featured in a newly published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Assistant Professor and Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) Faculty Affiliate Christian Fong and PhD candidate Nicolas Florez (both of the University of Michigan) show that primary voters are more supportive of a compromiser if that legislator first votes for a cover…

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April 21, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 2023-2024 Kentucky Legislative Session, 94th Arkansas General Assembly, and the 59th Oklahoma Legislature Legislative Session State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 2023-2024 Kentucky Legislative Session, 94th Arkansas General Assembly, and the 59th Oklahoma Legislature Legislative Session State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 2023-2024 Kentucky Legislative Session, 94th Arkansas General Assembly, and the 59th Oklahoma Legislature Legislative Session State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 59th Oklahoma Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Kentucky General Assembly, and the 94th Arkansas General Assembly (2023-2024) legislative sessions. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.These…

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April 16, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 113th Tennessee General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 113th Tennessee General Assembly (2023-2024) legislative session. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of bills legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and…

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April 9, 2026
Building Effective Legislation in the Commonwealth
Events / Legislative Research / State Legislatures

Building Effective Legislation in the Commonwealth

Building Effective Legislation in the Commonwealth On Friday, March 27, 2026, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) co-hosted a seminar along with the Virginia chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network (SSN) titled “Building Effective Legislation in the Commonwealth.” Scholars from the University of Virginia (UVA) and across the state enjoyed a day of discussion and skill-building, focused on how to strengthen their policy engagement and impact. The event was held at Garrett Hall, which houses the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at UVA.The seminar opened with an introduction…

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April 7, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 68th North Dakota Legislative Assembly (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Rhode Island General Assembly Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 68th North Dakota Legislative Assembly (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Rhode Island General Assembly Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 68th North Dakota Legislative Assembly (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Rhode Island General Assembly Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 68th North Dakota Legislative Assembly (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Rhode Island General Assembly legislative sessions. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.These scores capture lawmaking…

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April 2, 2026
When Process Becomes Power: Rules, Parties, and Legislative Effectiveness
Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Research / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

When Process Becomes Power: Rules, Parties, and Legislative Effectiveness

When Process Becomes Power: Rules, Parties, and Legislative Effectiveness While majority party success is often shaped by numerical advantages and cohesion, there is academic discussion on the additional causal factors behind it. In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Nicholas Howard, Assistant Professor at Concordia College, and Tessa Provins, Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona and CEL Faculty Affiliate, examine how chamber rules structure the legislative environment for both parties at each stage of the legislative process. This study argues that chamber rules do more than simply…

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March 31, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature Legislative Sessions State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 56th Arizona Legislature (2023-2024), the 2023-2024 Idaho Legislature, and the 2023-2024 Vermont Legislature legislative sessions. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.These scores capture lawmaking…

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March 26, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 123rd Indiana General Assembly and the 102nd Michigan Legislature State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) 
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 123rd Indiana General Assembly and the 102nd Michigan Legislature State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) 

Announcing the Release of the 123rd Indiana General Assembly and the 102nd Michigan Legislature State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 123rd Indiana General Assembly and the 102nd Michigan Legislature legislative sessions (2023–2024). This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of bills legislators sponsor,…

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March 19, 2026
Announcing the Release of the 74th Colorado General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Hawai‘i State Legislature, and the 152nd Delaware General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) 
State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 74th Colorado General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Hawai‘i State Legislature, and the 152nd Delaware General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) 

Announcing the Release of the 74th Colorado General Assembly, the 2023-2024 Hawai‘i State Legislature, and the 152nd Delaware General Assembly State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) Update: 3/17/2026 – We have recently become aware of an inconsistency in the data source from which we were collecting our data for the calculation of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores, which affects how we calculated our scores for the most recent legislative sessions in the state of Colorado. This inconsistency would potentially contribute to a miscalculation of some legislators’ scores. To engage with this…

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March 12, 2026

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