In 2025, the Levin Center conducted a study of all 50 states to examine how legislatures ensure government programs work effectively for citizens. Factors such as legislative oversight committees, routine engagement with executive agencies, collection of casework data, digital transparency tools, and user-centered policy evaluation were of particular importance. The full report can be found here.
State Summary #
As was reported in the Levin Center’s fifty-state survey on legislative oversight, “Missouri does not have the political resources to produce the evidence needed for ‘evidence-based bipartisan oversight.’”[1] Citizens can engage with the Legislature through regular member contact mechanisms and testimony, and the House does use a system to track constituent contacts. None of these items on their own, however, appear to rise to the standard of people-centered oversight.
[1] Lyke Thompson and Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson, “Checks and Balances in Action: Legislative Oversight across the States” (Wayne State University, 2019), http://go.levin-center.org/50state, 547.
