Status and outcome labels

CapitolMath describes a bill in three ways, each answering a different question: what became of it (its outcome), how far it got (its stage), and who holds it now (its custody). This page lists the labels for each, and where you'll see them.

On cards and in the table#

The chip on a bill card, and the table's Status column, lead with the outcome. Once a bill has stopped, that's the one fact worth a chip; while it's still moving, how far it has got tells you where to look.

Because the words match the filter, filtering to In Committee gives you cards that say In Committee. Sorting the table by Status orders bills by stage.

Outcome#

What became of a bill — the Outcome filter, the chip beside Progress in a bill's panel, and the Dashboard's Bills by outcome chart all use the same rules.

• Dead is worked out, not recorded. A bill that dies at the end of a session gets no event saying so — it stops. So a bill is Dead when its session has adjourned and it didn't pass.
• Where no adjournment has been recorded, the session's scheduled end counts as one, so its bills read as Dead once that date has passed. A bill's panel then shows an ⓘ beside Dead saying so, and the calendar's line for the session says the date is its scheduled end. If the legislature keeps voting after the scheduled end, the session is reopened and its bills go back to In progress until it really adjourns. A recorded adjournment always takes the scheduled date's place.
• A bill awaiting the governor's signature isn't Dead at adjournment: governors can act after a session closes. It stays In progress for 90 days after adjournment, then counts as Dead.
• A session with neither a recorded adjournment nor a scheduled end has no Dead bills. Its unfinished bills stay In progress rather than being guessed at. The same goes for the first year of a two-year legislature whose bills carry over into the second, such as Iowa, Oklahoma and Hawaii: the first year's recess isn't an end.
• Vetoed comes from the state's own record of the bill's outcome, which only some states use for vetoes, so elsewhere the count is low or zero. A veto that was overridden produced a law, so that bill is Passed.
• The outcomes overlap: a vetoed bill in an ended session is Dead too.

Dead and Failed are different. Failed means a chamber voted the bill down, and only some states record it. Dead means the session ran out.

Who holds it now#

Custody — where the bill physically is — drives the Currently with filter. It's also the chip on the bills listed under Similar bills in a bill's panel, and in a list's Find similar, where you're comparing bills across states. The first that applies wins:

Dead outranks custody: a bill that died in committee still names that committee as its holder, and without this it would read In Committee long after it died.

In a bill's panel#

Progress is a row of steps: Introduced, Committee, the origin chamber's vote, the other chamber's vote, Reconciliation, Governor (President for Congress) and Override. A step lights when the bill has reached it — Reconciliation only when the history shows one, since many bills never need it. A simple or concurrent resolution never goes to the governor, and the panel says so beneath the steps.

Public activity marks the events that have a result: Passed, Failed, Signed or Vetoed.

Votes count each member as Yes, No or No Vote. No Vote covers abstentions and absences alike — the sources rarely tell them apart. A projected vote uses Uncertain instead, for members the projection can't call.

In notification emails#

With Stage changes on bills I own or watch turned on under Notifications on My profile, the email about a bill reaching a new stage names the stage before and after in these words:

A stage not in this table — a reading, say — appears as its own name, such as First Reading.