Every year I take a quick peek at the legislative activity of the past year. Last year was, of course, exceptional, which is especially clear if you trace the number of votes taking place in the spring.
Notes: You can see the introduction of bills start picking up each November as pre-filing starts and peaking in Jan each year, and then actions pick up (actions are any step in the process, assigned to committee, amended, etc), typically peaking in March, followed by voting activity.
The every other year peak in bill count is due to two factors. First, four states only meet in odd years (MT, ND, NV, TX) and some states have an abbreviated even year session. Second, about half the states operate on a biennium basis, so they typically don’t have quite the burst of new bills on the even year (only NJ starts it’s biennium on the even year).
How will this year go?
And finally, for fun, all the states by number of bills introduced per year:
