Schema

The path a bill takes from when it’s introduced to Congress to when it is, or isn’t, signed into law is long and winding. Legislative Explorer: Washington State is an interactive visualization that reveals this lawmaking process to help students and the public better understand policymaking and discover associated patterns. Schema partnered with the Center for Public Policy and American Studies at the University of Washington to create this project as a complement to their first LegEx visualization showing the US Congress’s lawmaking process, which is very similar to Washington’s. For this iteration, additional interactivity underscores a bill’s nonlinear movement through committees, and the visualization supports characteristics particular to the state—for instance, its seasonal legislative sessions and the ability of the governor and citizens to introduce bills as well as senators and representatives.