Member and caucus records
Use member-controlled and official legislative sources for districts, caucus affiliation, appointments, stated priorities, and bill associations. Record the session. A current-looking page can contain older material; historical claims keep their original context.
District geography and data
Use authoritative district boundaries and documented geographic relationships. Preserve the distinction between postal ZIPs and Census ZCTAs. Document data year, denominator, sampling uncertainty, missingness, and geographic coverage.
Bill records
Identify legislature, regular or called session, bill number, version, action date, author or sponsor role, committee record, votes, fiscal note, and source URL. Enactment and effective date must come from supporting records.
Assessment and scorecards
Explain the evaluation question and criteria before assigning a judgment. Publish selection rules and any weights before a composite score is used. Missing evidence remains unassessed. Do not treat bill counts as outcomes or district conditions as proof of individual legislative performance.
Community impact
Distinguish member-reported accomplishments, appropriated funding, implementation records, and measured outcomes. Explain why the evidence is relevant to the affected community, including uncertainty and alternative explanations.
Current tools and privacy
The bill watchlist is stored locally in your browser, with item removal and export. The scorecard tool creates a local draft. No automatic alerts, live status feed, or public submissions are enabled. Export notes you want to keep before clearing browser storage.
Independence
BlackTexas is an independent publication. Caucus and government links are source references and do not imply their endorsement.