Legislative Action

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Sign up for our weekly Legislative Call to Action email. Every week during the Missouri Legislative session, we will advise you on ways to advocate on issues LWVKC has a position on. Some weeks we will suggest you contact your Senator; sometimes we will suggest you submit testimony but every week we will give you clear, succinct information and directions.

What is Legislative Tracking?

Legislative Tracking is where we follow the progress of a bill or a joint resolution as it makes its way through the legislative process. The goal of our Legislative Action Committee (LAC) is to amplify the voices of the members of the LAC so we may have an influence on the legislators crafting and voting in new laws. The final products of Legislative Tracking are Calls to Action (CTA) which go out via social media, newsletters, email and podcasts. We encourage our members to use the tools provided in the CTAs to express their support or opposition to bills currently being considered in the legislature. Most of the bills we track are Missouri bills but we may also track and respond to bills at the national level and proposed ordinances at the local level. It takes many steps from bill tracking to call to action with many opportunities for participating along the way. We hope you will join us in this very important effort! To become involved with Legislative Tracking, please email your interest to:    legislativeaction@lwvkc.org  

What are League Positions?

When we speak as a group, our voices are amplified and our impact on issues increases. But speaking as a group requires having an established LWV position. The LWVUS, LWVMO and LWVKC have positions on many issues that enable us to speak as a group. Positions often enunciate core beliefs and enumerate measures that the league supports on an issue.


Where can LWV positions be found?

Our LWVKC website has a page on League Positions. There you can find the revised positions for the LWVUS, LWVMO and LWVKC.


How are positions used? What is advocacy?

League positions enable advocacy. Advocacy takes many forms: it includes lobbying as a part of legislative action. But it also includes an educational dimension, where we educate voters, policymakers and administrators on policies and practices that we support.


What if we don’t have a clear position? How are positions created?

Times change, new issues emerge and new positions are required. The LWV has a process to create new positions to adapt to new challenges called a League of Women Voters Study. While a study committee will do research and frame questions on an issue, it’s up to league membership to study, discuss and approve positions. Only after membership’s approval can a position be used to support advocacy.


What steps are taken to create a position?

First, membership identifies an issue that merits study. Then a study committee conducts research on the targeted issue and presents its findings to membership. After studying the research, membership also considers some questions that have been framed by the study committee. These questions are called “Consensus Questions.” These questions are used to stoke conversations between members which leads to a “sense of the group” on its beliefs as well as measures that the group supports that are aligned with these beliefs. From that consensus, League positions are drafted. On approval by membership, those positions can then be used for advocacy.

Find our League Positions here.

Find out how a bill becomes a law in the state of Missouri by clicking the illustration  or document.   

How to navigate the Missouri House website.

How to navigate the Missouri Senate website. 



 

Glossary and FAQs

Click here for a glossary of important terms and answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Tracking Legislation

See what legislation League volunteers from across the state are following in Quorum in the chart below.

To see the Calls to Action we recommend, please check out our weekly legislative action and update emails.