Abstract
While much research has examined the workings of U.S. legislatures, few studies have examined the winnowing process in a systematic way, so we know little about why some bills progress while others languish. Research has shown that the winnowing process is cue based, with institutional and individual cues influencing the fate of individual bills. But what we know about the process of winnowing comes from research at the Congressional level, so it is not clear whether the findings about the winnowing process are institution specific or how variations in the institutional milieu affect the winnowing process. Using data on the legislative history of all bills introduced in four state legislative sessions (Georgia, Vermont, and Wisconsin during the 2007-2008 legislative session and Vermont in the 2003-2004 session), I examine the winnowing process at the state level. Preliminary results show that partisanship is critical to explaining which bills advance, but also that the factors that predict whether a bill becomes a law vary from state to state