May 19, 2013
The Texas Tribune announced Monday the launch of its Lawmaker Explorer, available now on the nonprofit media organization’s website.
The Texas Tribune Lawmaker Explorer is an interactive tool to help educate citizens on the degree to which legislators’ personal interests conflict with the public interest when passing bills and setting policy. It is the linchpin of the Tribune’s Bidness As Usual project — a session-long look at ethics and transparency in Texas’ part-time Legislature — and was created with the generous support of the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
The data application includes extensive research into all 180 current members of the Texas Legislature, plus the governor and lieutenant governor. It details everything from a lawmaker’s employment history and financial records to stock holdings, property listings, campaign finance data and ethics investigations.
It also contains reporter analysis — compiled over the course of nine months — into legislation filed and votes taken that could conflict with a lawmaker’s personal or financial interests.
