The CEL is grateful for the willingness of state lawmakers to engage in public service at this crucial time. We congratulate the newly-elected members of state legislatures across the country.
The materials available here offer our best advice for how new members can become effective lawmakers. We scoured all of the materials presented in previous new member orientation activities by numerous organizations, looking for their advice on effective lawmaking. We then tested the implicit hypotheses in these guides to discern which pieces of advice are likely to have the greatest impact if adopted by new lawmakers.
We distilled this information into an easy one-page checklist for members and a Venn diagram worksheet to help lawmakers define their legislative agenda and prioritize their proposals.
We continue to refine our materials for state legislators who are interested in increasing their lawmaking effectiveness, so be sure to sign up for our email list below.
Start here: The Five Habits for Highly Effective Lawmakers.
Helpful Articles for New Members
- Effective Lawmakers Put Policy Before Symbolism, UVAToday, March 2023
- Workhorses, not show horses: Five ways to promote effective lawmaking in Congress, The Conversation, August 2022
- Experienced staff promote effective lawmaking, The Hill, June 2021
- Congress’ most effective lawmakers aren’t generally its household names, USA Today, April 2021
- Members of Congress are specializing less often. That makes them less effective., The Washington Post, September 2020
- Does Bipartisanship even work in today’s polarized Congress? Yes. The Washington Post, February 2017
- Volden and Wiseman on the 5 habits of highly effective legislators, The Washington Post, February 2015
Working Papers for New Members
- The Bipartisan Path Revisited: Collaboration and Legislative Effectiveness in the U.S. States
- The Concentration of Legislative Effectiveness in the American States
- Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness
- Legislative Effectiveness in the American States
- When Process Becomes Power: Rules, Parties, and Legislative Effectiveness
- Gendered Perceptions of Legislative Influence
- I’m Coming Out! How Voter Discrimination Produces Effective LGBTQ Lawmakers
- Are Workers Effective Lawmakers