Find your hearing
The hearing that decides a kratom bill in your state is public, and you can find it yourself in about five minutes. Nobody publishes a national calendar of these, so this is the skill worth having.
Find the hearing that decides it
Bills die and pass in committee, not on the floor. The committee meeting is where a handful of people decide, and it is the one almost nobody shows up to. That is the opening.
- Find the bill What's moving lists the ones we know about, with a link to the official text. Note the committee named in the latest action.
- Find that committee's page Every legislature publishes committee agendas — search the committee name plus your state. Agendas usually post a few days ahead, sometimes only 24 hours.
- Check how to sign up Some states require registering to speak in advance, some take names at the door, some accept written testimony instead. The committee page says which. Written testimony still counts.
- Tell your reps you're coming Look them up and call the office first. "I'm a constituent and I'm testifying Thursday" gets remembered.
Two minutes is yours by right
Public comment is usually two or three minutes. That is shorter than it sounds — about 250 words. Write it down and read it. Nobody is grading the delivery.
Name and town. That is what makes you a constituent rather than a member of the public, and it is what gets written down.
Not what it does in general. What it does to you. You are the only person in the room who can give that testimony, and it is the part they remember.
"I support the age limit in section 4 and oppose the cap in section 7" is more useful than "I oppose this bill" — and harder to dismiss. Where we stand is the list to check it against.
Stop, breathe, keep reading. It happens constantly and it is not held against you. Submitting written testimony is also always an option, and counts.
Tell us what you find
If you turn up a hearing date, or a bill we are not tracking, send it over. It goes on the bills page so the next person does not have to look it up again.
And if you testify, tell us how it went. We are collecting these — with your permission and nothing published without it, as the privacy policy sets out.