Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Where can I get a copy of bill?

A.
You can obtain the text of pending legislation via our website:
For the text of Senate Bills go to the Massachusetts Senate Bill Text System
For the text of House Bills go to the Massachusetts House Bill Text System or from

The Legislative Document Room
Room 428
State House
Boston, MA 02133
(617)-722-2860 The Document Room does not have a mail facility, so please send them a self-addressed stamped envelope with your request.

Q. How do I find E-Mail addresses for the members of the Legislature?

A.
E-Mail addresses for those members of the Legislature who have elected to have them, are available within their member profiles (available from the home page). If you do not find an E-Mail address in their profile, they have chosen to either (a) not have one, or (b) not publish the address.

We do NOT (and will not) publish lists that contain all of the legislative E-Mail addresses.

Q. How can I find how my legislator has voted on a particular issue?

A.
Roll Call votes are recorded in the journal of the branch that voted on the matter. The Senate Journals are available from March 12, 1998 to the present. House Journals are available from January 24, 2001 to the present. If the journal you need is not available here, then copies of the corrected proofs of the journals are available about two weeks after the day of the session and can be obtained from:

The Legislative Document Room
Room 428
State House
Boston, MA 02133
(617) 722-2860 The Document Room does not have a mail facility, so please send them a self-addressed stamped envelope with your request. Also, the Clerks of each branch maintain a book of all the roll call votes recorded in a legislative session. That book is available for viewing within their offices. The Senate Clerk is located in Room 335 in the State House, the House Clerk in Room 145 of the State House.

Q. When were the files I view last updated?

A.
The date to which all files (except the General Law files) are up-to-date is published on the General Court's Home Page ("http://www.mass.gov/legis").
The date to which the General Laws are up-to-date is published on the home page for the General Laws ("http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/index.htm").

Q. How often is your information updated?

A.
We are currently running a procedure which provides 2 updates during a 24 hour period of the General Court's files. Accidents do happen and bad actions can get posted on a bill (or actions may not yet have been posted when we converted the files), so please be sure to verify your information (especially if there is no journal page posted after the action).
However, there are additional updates which occur and are posted during the day which would not be noticed by looking at the time stamp on the home page.

Q. How can I search for a particular General Law?

A.
There is a search facility to perform Boolean searches included on the home page for the General Laws ("http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/index.htm"). It is located just after the listing of the five parts that comprise the General Laws. The results of the search will provide you a link to the files that satisfy the search as well as show you the first 250 characters of the text of the files that satisfy your search. Search results will also provide a further search box to diversify or help narrow your search.