State Legislatures – Center for Effective Lawmaking

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Attends the 2026 NCSL Summit

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Attends the 2026 NCSL Summit Chicago, IL – Last week, thousands of state lawmakers, legislative staff, researchers, and advocates were in Chicago for the 2026 National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Summit, and the Center for Effective Lawmaking was excited to attend for the first time. The Summit provided the opportunity to connect directly with lawmakers and their staff who can apply our research to improve legislative effectiveness in their chamber. We shared information about the CEL’s mission and research and handed out our newly-published…

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August 13, 2026

Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / State Legislatures

Colleagues and Neighbors? Geographic Patterns of Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness

Colleagues and Neighbors? Geographic Patterns of Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness Tuesday, August 11, 2026Geography plays a role in shaping American legislatures, but while there is often a focus on the importance of constituency representation, its role as a source of division does not always receive as much attention. Legislative politics scholarship increasingly recognizes the importance of social relationships and networks in shaping outcomes, and within this literature, one important observation is that collaboration across difference can be especially impactful. In state legislatures, within-state regional divisions are often common knowledge but…

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August 11, 2026

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures

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Center Affiliates / Faculty Affiliates / Interest & Legislative Effectiveness Scores / Legislative Anaylsis / Legislative Research / Policy Scores / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures

Policy Agendas, Effective Lawmaking, and Women’s Issues in State Legislatures Tuesday, August 4, 2026 State legislatures introduce roughly 100,000 bills a year, far outpacing Congress, yet scholars have long lacked a reliable way to sort that volume into policy areas, making it hard to ask basic questions about which issues get attention, which stall, and who succeeds where. In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, the authors take on that challenge directly. It was written by Andrew M.O. Ballard, Associate Professor at Florida State University (and CEL Faculty…

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August 3, 2026

Conversations with Lawmakers / State Legislatures

Discussing Effective Lawmaking With Alabama Senator Arthur Orr

Discussing Effective Lawmaking With Alabama Senator Arthur Orr Senator Arthur Orr is a sixth-generation Alabamian, who grew up in Danville, Alabama, where he worked on the Alabama Sheriff’s Boys Ranch. He attended Wake Forest University, and as a student he served as chairman of the university Honor Council, received several academic honors, and held numerous leadership positions throughout the university. This pattern of leadership continued when he attended law school at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he earned leadership and academic honors while teaching freshman English and volunteering…

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August 3, 2026

Legislative Research / State Legislatures

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Is Proud to Present Our New Guidebook for New State Legislators

The Center for Effective Lawmaking Is Proud to Present Our New Guidebook for New State Legislators NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is pleased to announce the release of our new guidebook, Being An Effective Lawmaker From Day One, a resource designed to help newly elected state legislators become more effective lawmakers from the start of their legislative careers.Drawing on several years of research, the guide provides practical, research-based strategies for navigating the legislative process and building a foundation for effective lawmaking before legislators begin serving in…

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July 23, 2026

Blog / Legislative Research / State Legislatures

How Do Women and Men Respond to More Women in the Legislature? A Study of Bill Introductions and Effectiveness

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 In this newly published paper in Political Research Quarterly, Emma Schroeder (Texas Christian University) examines how increasing numbers of women in state legislatures influence the legislative behavior of women and men, using bill introduction data and legislative effectiveness scores from 49 U.S. state legislatures. She finds that in upper chambers with more women, women serve as the primary sponsors of fewer bills than men. However, when both primary sponsorship and cosponsorship are considered, women contribute to more bills than men in both chambers. This relationship varies…

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July 8, 2026

State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 2024-2025 Virginia General Assembly’s and the 221st New Jersey Legislature’s (2024-2025) State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 2024-2025 Virginia General Assembly’s and the 221st New Jersey Legislature’s (2024-2025) 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 2024-2025 Virginia General Assembly and the 221st New Jersey 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 effectiveness by tracking the number of…

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June 25, 2026

State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 67th Wyoming Legislature’s (2023-2024) and the 33rd Alaska Legislature’s (2023-2024) State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 67th Wyoming Legislature’s (2023-2024) and the 33rd Alaska Legislature’s (2023-2024) 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 67th Wyoming Legislature and the 33rd Alaska 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 effectiveness by tracking the number of bills that legislators sponsor,…

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June 18, 2026

State Highlights / State Legislative Effectiveness Scores / State Legislatures

Announcing the Release of the 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly’s (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Washington Legislature’s State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)

Announcing the Release of the 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly’s (2023-2024) and the 2023-2024 Washington Legislature’s 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 82nd Oregon Legislative Assembly and the 2023-2024 Washington 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 effectiveness by tracking the number of bills that…

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June 11, 2026

Conversations with Lawmakers / State Legislatures

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Michigan Senator Sarah Anthony

Discussing Effective Lawmaking with Michigan Senator Sarah Anthony Senator Sarah Anthony has been representing District 21 in the Michigan Senate since 2023. Previously, she served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2018 to 2022. Senator Anthony was the first African American woman elected to both the Michigan House of Representatives and Senate in the Lansing area. In 2023, she became the first African American woman to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee in the Michigan Senate. She also served as the first Vice-Chairperson of the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus and…

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June 8, 2026