Our Vision
It’s incredibly difficult for ordinary people to take meaningful part in the legislative process. Hundreds of bills are introduced each session. They move through committees and floor votes at lightning speed. We often do not understand the intent and consequences of these bills until weeks, months or years after they become laws. Serious bills that affect our economy, environment, education and democratic rights are passed or killed with too little input from the people whose lives they affect.
We developed the legislative scorecard to help turn that around. The scorecard identifies important legislation before and during the session and scores legislators based on how they vote. You can use this tool to assess how your legislators are doing on the issues that matter to you.
Partner Organizations
This project is a collaborative effort between Louisiana Budget Project, Together Louisiana, the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy and the Power Coalition for Equity & Justice.
Grades and Scoring
Legislation is identified for scoring based on its impact on Louisiana residents in one of the following seven issue categories: Jobs & Workplace, Fair Taxes, Crime & Criminal Justice, Clean Air, Land & Water, Children & Families, Corporate Welfare and Democratic Rights. Once a bill is earmarked for inclusion, we alert legislators so they are aware which votes will be scored.
Legislators are graded, just like you remember in school, based on what percentage of their votes are aligned with people’s interests. Legislators receive an overall score and subscores by issue category. Anything below 60% is an F. Bonus points are awarded based on bill sponsorship, introducing positive or negative amendments and other significant acts of legislative leadership.
Grades are updated weekly based on lawmakers’ votes during the prior week.
By clicking the issue categories below or the voting record from each politicians’ page, you can see the bills that included in scoring, along with a description of what each bill does and why it has been deemed good or bad for Louisiana. Each legislator’s profile page includes a comparison to how other members of the same party and chamber have scored, to provide context for how lawmakers are voting relative to their peers.
