Even in an election year, we should remember the importance of the US states for policy implementation.

The US is facing one of its most important elections at the same time Congress is experiencing polarization induced legislative gridlock. Chris Gilson writes that it’s important to remember the importance of state and local governments in US policymaking and policy implementation. Many of these governments are facing reduced budgets following the COVID-19 pandemic and other barriers to organisational learning and institutional memory, such as staff churn and legislative term limits. He considers how an online tool could help to level the state and local government policy learning landscape.