How Trade Associations Track Massachusetts Bills

Trade associations exist to protect the interest of their members. Whether you represent restaurants, healthcare providers, or manufacturers, your job is clear: to stay ahead of legislative changes that could impact your member’s industry and inform them before the policy becomes law.

Staying ahead of these policies requires more than just checking the Massachusetts legislature website and scouring through multiple sources.

The Daily Struggles Trade Associations Face

Without the right tracking system, even the most experienced teams may struggle.

Your issues may be scattered across multiple committees and only keeping an eye on some may result in missing a policy that affects your members moving forward without you knowing.
When a member calls asking about a particular issue, don’t leave them waiting while you search for answers. Give them an immediate answer accurately and effectively. Questions about the current status of a bill, the words of the last version, when the hearing is are all baseline expectations that your members expect you to know.
Keeping track of policy isn’t enough, you also need to look at how budget line items, amendments or outside sections can impact your members. If you’re only tracking bills, you may miss some crucial actions that your members will be blindsided by.
Scouring through spreadsheets of bill numbers, checking the legislature website, and looking for keywords across hundreds of bills.

Why Trade Associations Choose MassTrac

MassTrac consolidates everything that happens on Beacon Hill into a centralized platform allowing you to take a look at bills, amendments, budgets, and transcripts all at once.

The faster that you access accurate legislative information, the more effectively you can serve the interest of your members.

What you get with MassTrac

Daily Alert - Every morning before you start work, let MassTrac bring you your daily alert. Receive a comprehensive email showing all actions on your tracked bills and amendments including upcoming hearings, press releases, and keywords. If you can think of it, it’s there.
Searchable Transcripts - When legislation that affects your members gets debated, you need to know what is important to you. MassTrac provides searchable, speaker attributed transcripts that allow you to jump to what matters to your members. Bills mentioned and legislators who spoke are also flagged, and you’ll be notified of the ones you’re tracking.
Budget Tracking - Amendments to the budgets might make it into the legislative process that impact your members. MassTrac offers line item tracking, amendment tracking, and brings you plain english summaries of the appropriation, including the outside sections and amendments.
Lobbying Data - View comprehensive lobbying data to know who is advocating for or against the legislature that matters to you.
MobileTrac - Trade association work doesn’t end when the clock hits five. MobileTrac, the mobile companion of MassTrac, ensures that you are never caught off guard. Have Beacon Hill in the palm of your hands, and view all the tools that make MassTrac special on the app.