To help Idaho citizens keep track of all the legislation being considered in both the House and the Senate, True Idaho News worked with a private company a few years ago to design and build a user-friendly legislative tracking site. The website, www.IdahoSession.com, is free for everyone to use and is updated nightly. Each morning the current status of all legislation matches exactly what appears on the state’s legislative webpages.
Daniel Bobinski, editor of True Idaho News, stated that the legislature in Idaho does a good job of posting the status of the bills and resolutions being considered, but the state’s website does not have a user-friendly design. “Our team felt that citizens shouldn’t have to navigate through so many pages just to check the status or contents of a bill,” Bobinski said. “We contacted a designer and told them what we wanted. They wrote the code and then together we polished the look and feel of the site. The feedback we’ve gotten from users over the past few years is nothing but positive.”
“Ours is a bottom-up government,” said Bobinski. “At least it’s supposed to be. We thought a more user-friendly website should exist so people can easily keep track of what’s going on.”
Each year the design company has added new features. This year’s additions include the voting record of each Representative and Senator and also a committee calendar, complete with links to the upcoming agenda. “If citizens have an easy way to keep track of what’s happening with legislation that will affect them, then they can be more informed – and be more likely to be more involved. It’s how our country was designed,” said Bobinski.
Bobinski also stated the month of March is often fraught with rapidly moving bills that have been slipped in at end of the session and rushed to the floor for a vote. “Many liberty-loving legislators say this is the most dangerous time for the citizens of Idaho. They tell me that legislation that is not in the people’s best interest often gets shoved through, with the true beneficiaries usually being special interest groups and companies belonging to IACI (the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry).”
IACI has a track record of supporting big-government programs and woke, left-leaning agendas.
“March is the time to be uber-vigilent, and to be in touch with our representatives to oppose bad legislation and support the good,” Bobinski said.
Suggestions for adding additional features to www.IdahoSession.com can be sent here.
