Choosing the Sway Bill of the Week

Choosing a Bill of the Week can be a difficult process. Sometimes the Bill of the Week is an obvious choice; an issue gains momentum, inspires public debate and the legislator creates and votes on a bill. However, this does not happen that often; typically Sway will rely on an imperfect process to decide which bill should be Bill of the Week.

When choosing a Bill of the Week, Sway considers a few factors:

1. 1. Diversity. The Sway platform should provide to its users a diversity of bills that can be voted on. For example, police reform is a popular topic in Baltimore City, and Sway will feature legislation on reforming the Baltimore City Police Department. However, police reform cannot be the only issue Sway covers and it would be rare for a specific category of legislation to be Bill of the Week more than one week in a row.
2. 2. Cost. Swaylation that results in large spending increases, such as Bill 20-0588 from the 2020 Baltimore City Council which approved a $105 million bond issuance for the redevelopment of the Perkins-Somerset-Oldtown area of East Baltimore. An exception to this rule are regular and broad spending bills such the annual budget, because:
3. 3. Focused. Sway only considers legislation that is targeted on issues. A broad budget bill is not targeted in the same way a bill that, for example, deals with spending money to provide low-income housing is focused on the specific issue of housing.
4. 4. Impactful. This is the final criterion that Sway considers. The Baltimore City Council considers many bills that may be impactful in a hyperlocal setting, such as the demolition of some row homes, however, such an ordinance would have little impact on Baltimore City as a whole.

Even given the criteria above, determing which bill should be Bill of the Week can be no easy task. Some people will undoubtedly be disappointed on a given week when multiple pieces of legislation are deserving of the Bill of the Week title. One way in which Sway can rememdy this is by selecting bills that may be past their peak popularity. For example, if a bill is not selected one week, it may be selected the next, or during a slow period such as around July 4th or the holidays at the end of the year.

Finally, Sway may, at some points, re-issue a bill as the Bill of the Week. This is most likely to occur during the aforementioned slow periods, when the City Council has not voted on any new legislation.