Creating & Managing Lists

Updated: September 2007

• Custom Member List
• Custom Bill List
• Custom Vote List
• Custom Word List
• Custom Committee List
• Custom Law List

CQ.com allows you to create and save member, bill, word, vote and committee lists. These lists can be customized to meet your specific needs and can be used as tools to search or track information on the website.

Create a custom list, and it will always be available to you, whether you're searching or creating Alerts or reports. You can create and maintain your lists through the tools section on the MyCQ Tab. Changes to your custom list will automatically be reflected everywhere you've used that list, making it the easiest way for you to centralize your tracking.

The Bills Tab has a link to "Create or edit bill list" and the Members Tab has an icon on the right-hand side of the screen to create a list of members. The U.S. Code page allows you to save sections of the Code to a law list, and the CQ LawTrack page allows you to select any law and add it to a list. You can also create lists using your search results if you have searched bill-related documents, member profiles, floor votes or U.S. Code or Public Law Text.

Custom Member List

What is it?

Custom Member Lists are used to find and organize members or track the latest information on members. The list is based on your specified search criteria.

How does it work?

Your lists can be customized based on Committee, Subcommittee, Party affiliation, Chamber or State. If you need to track the same members regularly, you can make a list and save it to your account for later use. You can always edit or add to your list, and it can be used in any data source that is searchable by member. After you have created and saved a list, it may be used again as a starting point for a new list. To use your Member list when searching, you will need to do an Advanced Search and select your Member list next to Member names.

Creating a Member list

Step 1. Find your desired members by entering specific search criteria.

• Option 1. Enter member name, or,
• Option 2. Start with an existing list that you previously created, or,
• Option 3. Choose the specific details about the member(s) that you wish to include in your list.

Note: Options 2 and 3 can be used together.

Cross-Congress Member Lists: You have the ability to add members to your list from previous Congresses. To find individual members, select the appropriate Congress from the "Select from" drop-down box. You can also find members by committee for the 106th-thru-current Congresses (the committee option is not available for the 105th or 104th). Do not be confused if you see what looks like senators voting on House votes -- some newly elected senators will appear with their Senate designation in vote reports of their earlier House votes. At times, members who have served in both the House and the Senate appear twice if you find members across "All of the Above" Congresses. If you plan to create vote reports for their past House votes, keep the duplicate name in your list.

• Click the "Go" button -- this will return a list of members that meet your search criteria.

Step 2. Refine the search results and remove members from your list.

• You may remove members from your list by highlighting the members you want to remove, and then clicking the "Remove" button.

Step 3. Name and save your list.

• Name your list.
• Describe your list: store notes about your list for future reference.
• Click "Save."

Custom Bill List

What is it?

Custom Bill Lists are used to organize bills and track the latest information available about the bills. The list can be created from specific bills that you choose or from bills that you find during a search.

How does it work?

If you need to track the same bills regularly, you can make a list and save it to your account for later use. You can always edit or add to your list, and it can be used in any data source that is searchable by bill. After you have created and saved a list, it may also be used again as a starting point for a new list. To use your Bill list when searching any of the data sources, you will need to do an Advanced Search and select the Bill list from the pulldown menu next to the Bill Numbers box.

Creating a Bill list

Step 1. Define your bills.

• Type in bill numbers and/or draft bill numbers, or
• Click on "Find more bills" to search for bills using various criteria, or
• Select from a previously saved bill list.

Note: When you select a previously created list, those bill numbers will appear in the Bill numbers box.

Step 2. Name, describe, and save your list.

• Name (example: Gun Control Bills)
• Use a description to help you remember the specific content, e.g. 'Bills passed in the Senate related to Gun Control'.
• Click "Save" to save your list.

Note: If a draft bill in your list gets a real bill number, the list will automatically update to include all information on the newly introduced bill. You don't have to change a thing.

Custom Vote List

What is it?

A Custom Vote List is a set of votes from the current or earlier Congresses. Vote lists can be created based on the chamber, search words/phrases, vote number, vote date, members, date added to CQ.com or bill number.

How does it work?

You can use your Custom Vote list to find out about votes or use your list to create a vote report. You can always edit or add to your list at any time. After you have created and saved a list, it may be used again as a starting point for a new list. NOTE: A Vote list can only contain votes from one chamber. If you wish to use votes from both chambers, you will have to perform two separate searches.

Creating a vote list

Step 1. Find votes that you may wish to include in your list.

• Click the "find votes" link.
• Select a chamber.
• Fill in search criteria below (search words/phrases, vote number, date or member, bill number). NOTE: When selecting members for your search criteria, you should select members in the same chamber that you have identified above. Remember that the member is the one who sponsored an amendment or motion on which the vote was taken.
• Add Votes to List: If you are adding votes to your list, the chamber is already selected.
• Click "Search."

Note: When you select a previously created list, those votes will appear in the "Selected Votes" box. (Then you may proceed directly to Step 3.)

Step 2. Select the votes you wish to include in your custom list.

• From the hit list, select which votes you wish to include in your list by checking the appropriate box next to each. You may choose your position for each vote as well by using the drop-down menu and selecting Yea or Nay. If you plan on creating a comparison vote report, you will have to pick a position using this drop-down menu. (For more information, see "Creating Vote Reports.")
• Click the "Save Results as List" link at the top-left of the screen or click the "Go" button near the top of the screen.

Step 3. Name and save your list.

• Name your list.
• Describe your list: store notes about your list for future reference.
• Click "Save."

After creating your list you may go to the custom vote report page to continue working with your custom vote list. Or go to the list management page to edit or delete custom lists.

Custom Word List

What is it?

You can use a word list to make searching easier by already having keywords or phrases at your fingertips.

How does it work?

A Custom Word list is a set of words or terms for use in text searching. For example, you may create a word list called "Defense" that includes keywords such as army, marines, air force, navy, coast guard, department of defense, dod. When you perform a search, you can simply select the list titled "Defense" to search all of the terms without having to remember them or re-type them each time you perform the search. You can use your word list to search all data sources on the Web site.

Creating a word list

Step 1. Define your words. (See Help: "Format Tips for Better Searches.")

• Enter the keywords or phrases that you wish to include on your list.
• You may begin with an existing list.

Step 2. Name and save your list.

• Name your list.
• Describe your list: store notes about your list for future reference.
• Click "Save."

Custom Committee List

What is it?

You can use a Committee list to make searching easier by having searches on specified commiittees/subcommittees always at your fingertips.

How does it work?

You can customize your lists to include any combination of committees and/or subcommittees. If you need to track the same committees regularly, you can make a list and save it to your account for later use. You can always edit or add to your list, and it can be used in any current congress data source where both full and subcommittees can be searched. After you have created and saved a list, it may be used again as a starting point for a new list. To use your Committee list when searching, you will need to do an Advanced Search and select your custom Committee list, located next to Committee names.

Creating a Committee list

Step 1. Find your committees/subcommittees.

• Select any combination of committees and/or subcommittees from the menu boxes that you wish to include in your list, or
• You may begin with an existing list.

Step 2. Current Committee List.

The current committee list shows you which committees/subcommittees you have selected for your list. You can refine this list by highlighting the those you wish to remove and clicking the "remove" button.

Step 3. Name and save your list.

• Name your list.
• Describe your list: store notes about your list for future reference.
• Click "Save."

Custom Law List

What is it?

A law list allows you to specify the laws you care about and be notified when they are modified by new laws, or when there are new versions of bill text that would make changes to them. You can also use law lists with CQ LawTrack, and when searching U.S. Code and Public Law Text.

How does it work?

CQ understands and translates a wide variety of ways to designate laws for your list. You can specify your laws by U.S. Code citation, or by Act Name, statute cite or PL number. While your law list can contain references to both U.S. Code and Public Law Text documents, you can use your list in either place and your search or alert will simply ignore the references that don't apply to that particular situation.

Creating a Law list

Step 1. Find or designate your laws.

• Enter your laws one at a time in the box, by entering U.S. Code cite, PL number, Statute references, or Act Name (using the adjacent tips for reference) then select "Add".
• Note -- once you have entered a law, it will appear on the page below the box. It may appear slightly differently than you entered it, because we standardize legal references behind the scenes to make law list creation work better.
• You may use an existing law list by using the drop-down list on the right. You may edit or delete any of your entries by selecting either of these options, which are located to the right of the entry in the list you are creating.

Step 2. Name and save your list.

• Name your list.
• Describe your list: store notes about your list for future reference.
• Click "Save."