Indiana upgrades its legislative tracking system

Indiana has expanded the services available through its online BillWatch legislative tracking and information system. The state offers the service via its Web site, which is operated by National Information Consortium Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., under a contract with the state.New features let subscribers assign priority to bills they are tracking, sort bills by number, place personal comments on bills with a notes feature, access committee schedules and do other functions.The state’s contractor charges $49.50 monthly for BillWatch. The public also can contact legislators and check legislation—without the enhanced features or the subscription fees—through the Indiana General Assembly’s Web site at .Indiana officials and NIC managers designed the upgraded BillWatch services after conducting focus groups with lobbyists and other users of the legislative tracking service. NIC has held the contract to operate accessIndiana since 1995. Indiana renewed the contract in April 2000.