Quorum logo
BMS how-to library

Module 1 · Foundations · Lesson 1 of 13 · 5 minutes

Find legislation affecting my states

You can produce a defensible list of bills in your states on any BMS issue, in under ten minutes, without opening a single legislature website.

Open QuorumWatch the official tour firstFormal training in Quorum School

The BMS scenario

You cover a set of states and need to know what has been introduced that touches a BMS policy issue — without reading every legislature separately.

When to use it

Start of session, when your region assignment changes, or any time you're asked 'is anything moving in my states?'

Why it matters

If the region or the search phrase is wrong, everything downstream — triage, stances, dashboards, alerts — inherits the gap. A bill leadership asks about that never showed up in your list is a credibility problem, not a search problem, by the time it surfaces.

Before you start

  • The list of states you personally cover this session.
  • Two or three phrases that appear in the bill text of your issue (not the internal BMS label for it).
  • A logged-in Quorum session — use the SSO option on the Quorum login page.

Field guide

Region / jurisdiction selector
Set to the exact states you own — not 'all states'. A broad region is the single biggest cause of a noisy result list downstream.
Session / introduced-date filter
Scope to the current session by default. Leaving this open returns prior-session bills that look active but are dead.
Search phrase field
Use bill-text language ('step therapy', 'copay accumulator'), not the internal BMS issue name — sponsors don't write bills using your team's shorthand.
Sort order
Sort by introduction date, newest first, so you're triaging what's new rather than re-scanning what you've already seen.

If your situation is different

  • If you cover a single large state with heavy bill volume, narrow further with a committee or chamber filter before judging the phrase — volume alone can look like noise.
  • If you're building the search for a colleague's states, not your own, confirm their exact state list with them first; don't guess from a regional label like 'Southeast'.
  • If the issue is genuinely two related but distinct topics, build two separate saved searches rather than one OR'd phrase — you'll want to alert and report on them separately later.

Step by step

Steps describe the general Quorum workflow. What your seat shows depends on the BMS subscription — check with your Quorum admin if a control isn't there.

  1. 1

    Set your region first

    Change the region selection to the states you cover before you write the query. Scoping first keeps the result list readable and means you can reuse the same query for a different region set later.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 1.1Open Quorum and go to the legislation area for state bills.
    2. 1.2Open the region or jurisdiction selector at the top of the view.
    3. 1.3Clear any leftover selection from a previous session, then select only the states you cover.
    4. 1.4Apply the selection and confirm the result count changes — that is your proof the scope took effect.

    You know it worked when: The header shows only your states and the result count dropped.

  2. 2

    Search on the issue language, not the bill number

    Use the words that appear in bill text — 'copay accumulator', 'step therapy', '340B' — rather than a topic label. Add a session or introduced-date filter so you see this session only.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 2.1Type your issue phrase into the search box, in quotes if the phrase is more than one word.
    2. 2.2Add the current session or an introduced-date range so last session's bills drop out.
    3. 2.3Run the search and sort by introduction date, newest first.
    4. 2.4Add a second phrase with OR only if the first misses bills you know exist.

    You know it worked when: Everything on page one is from the current session.

  3. 3

    Scan the first page for false positives

    If unrelated bills appear, exclude the term causing them before you save anything. Fixing noise now saves you from muting an alert later.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 3.1Read the titles on the first page only — do not scroll the whole list yet.
    2. 3.2Spot the pattern behind the wrong results (a shared word like 'insurance' or 'compensation').
    3. 3.3Add that word as an exclusion, or tighten the phrase, and re-run.
    4. 3.4Repeat once. If page one is still noisy after two passes, the phrase is wrong, not the filter.

    You know it worked when: You can explain why each result on page one is there.

  4. 4

    Save the search and open the profiles that matter

    Save it with a name a colleague understands, then open each bill profile to read the summary, sponsor and current status before deciding whether to track it.

    Do this in Quorum

    1. 4.1Save the search with a name in the pattern: Issue — Region (owner).
    2. 4.2Open three or four bill profiles from the results.
    3. 4.3On each profile read the summary, sponsor, committee and last action before deciding to track it.
    4. 4.4Add the keepers to your bill sheet from the profile or the results list.

    You know it worked when: The saved search appears in your saved list and a colleague could tell from the name what it covers.

Common mistakes

  • Searching on the internal BMS issue label instead of bill-text language.

    Fix: Ask what words a sponsor or drafter would actually use, and search those.

  • Leaving the region set to a previous owner's states.

    Fix: Always clear the selector and reselect explicitly before running a new search.

  • Judging noise from a huge scroll instead of just page one, newest-first.

    Fix: Sort newest-first and judge from the first page only — that's representative of what you'll triage weekly.

  • Saving the search with a name only you understand.

    Fix: Use Issue — Region (owner) every time, even for searches you think are temporary.

Prompts to run in Quincy, inside Quorum

Quincy is the agentic layer in Quorum — it works on your live data. Copy a prompt into Quincy after you log in. If you want the steps explained first, ask the site guide.

  • "Summarize what changed in the last three amendments to this bill."
  • "Does this bill's language resemble any other bill I'm tracking in a different state?"
Open Quincy in Quorum

Practice it now

  1. 1) Pick one BMS issue and build the search for your own state set, end to end.
  2. 2) Save it, then change the region to a colleague's states and confirm the same query still returns sensible results.
  3. 3) Reset the region back to yours before you leave the view.
Open Quorum and try it

Done looks like this

  • One saved, clearly-named search per issue you own.
  • You know which phrase produced the noise and how you removed it.

When to stop and ask

If the region selector doesn't show a state you know you cover, or the states available don't match your assignment, confirm with a Quorum admin or the BMS account team (Michael Fuentes, michael.fuentes@quorum.us) — don't work around it with a broader region.