Copy, Paste, Legislate: We Looked For Legislation That Was Written By Special Interests. We Found It In All 50 States. by USA TODAY

Lawmakers are supposed to write your laws. Instead, sometimes, special interests write them. This is how they do it.

Our investigation examined nearly 1 million bills introduced in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to detect similarities in language. Clear visual storytelling was required to show how common the copying of special-interest legislation has become and how it has touched every state. This special report explains how the system works and how far the reach of special interests can grow.

Learn more about this project and its many contributors here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/04/03/how-laws-made-why-we-revealed-politicians-didnt-write-them/3162256002/

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