codeforboston / codeforboston/maple

Bill Categories+ MGL Topics

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Description

This Epic is for the design and development of bill "topics" (based on the MGL hierarchy names) and their integration into MAPLE.

We will use this to add context to the bills' text -- ie. what is the current law that bill X is amending?
The Massachusetts General Laws are organized by Part, Title, Chapter and Section - each of which has their own "name". For example, Part 1, Title XV, Chapter 93K, Section 1 = Admin Government, Regulation of Trade, Automotive Repair, definitions. https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI

Vast majority of bills will be amending the MGL and will specifically call out the Part, Title, Chapter and Section. Ie. here is a bill amending Chapter 93K (automotive repair). https://digital-testimony-dev.web.app/bill?id=H457. The bill text starts "The definition of “Heavy duty vehicle” in section 1 of chapter 93K of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out the following words"

By knowing where in the MGL is amended by a bill, we can add "topics" to that bill. For the above bill, we could add "Admin Government", "Regulation of Trade", "Automotive Repair" and "Definitions". However - we are only concerned with Part, Title and Chapter for now. We have yet to scrape the Section info. And, the Chapter and Title will be the focal points on the front end.

Chapters run sequentially through all of the MGL - even across parts and titles. For example, Part II begins on Chapter 183. Many bills will not state the Part or Title (which are hierarchically above the Chapter), but only the Chapter and Section. But we can key that Chapter 1-182 are in Part 1; Chapter 183-210 are in Part 2; etc.

Here are recordings of the Mitre attempts:
0:10 seconds into the video; and again at 28:40
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D3olHFsxxk1PZhQTfus_cja_cUrI9qeS/view?usp=share_link

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