Today in CongressFebruary 06, 2012
- S.2038 - Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of ... Senate Passed Feb 02, 2012 34 articles
- S.2004 - A bill to grant the Congressional Gold Medal to... Introduced Dec 15, 2011 25 articles
- H.R.3835 - To extend the pay limitation for Members of Con... House Passed Feb 02, 2012 22 articles
- H.R.1173 - Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security A... House Passed Feb 02, 2012 22 articles
- S.2005 - Irish Immigration Recognition and Encouragement... Introduced Dec 15, 2011 20 articles
OpenCongress Blog Feed Tweet Us! Add our Facebook
Liberate OpenGovData Now by David Moore February 1, 2012
It's 2012 - we don't have hover skateboards, and we don't have #opengov. We could have the latter, at least, in the here and now, benefiting every American, if the systemically corrupt U.S. Congress was capable of reforming itself (which it is currently, unfortunately, not). (Right, '80's movie art, w/ connotations of liberation by force and yet a certain datedness... it's past time.)
I'm writing this on the train from NYC to D.C., en route to the Conference on Legislative Data & Transparency to be held Thursday, Feb. 2nd, 9am - 5pm ET - agenda here, webcast live here, micro-publishing updates here.
This shouldn't be a negotiation - rather, I'm here to call for liberation of public legislative data via bulk access and moving towards an open API for THOMAS. Then proceeding aggressively to API enhancements for Congressional offices to continually engage with constituent communications - for a living, breathing deliberative democracy - aided by open technology.
Read Full ArticleMore Recent Blog Posts
OpenCongress helps you track all the actions by your elected officials and what people are saying about them.
Subscribe to RSS feeds to stay in touch with their latest votes.
Featured Members of Congress Feed
A Most-Viewed Senator
Amid an ethics committee investigation, Sen. John Ensign [R, NV] announced on April 22nd that he was resigning his Senate seat effective May 3rd. Ensign had an extramarital affair with the wife of his former top aide, whom he helped secure a lucrative lobbying job for while the affair was still going on. The investigation will be dropped once Ensign is now longer a member of the Senate. Under Nevada law, the governor will appoint a replacement, most likely Rep. Dean Heller [R, NV-2].
A Most-Viewed Representative
Rep. David Wu [D, OR-1] has announced his plans to resign from Congress in response to allegations that he sexually assaulted the teenage daughter of one of his campaign contributors. In a statement Wu said that he would step down "effective upon the resolution of the debt-ceiling crisis."
Latest Votes
-
H.R.658 FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011
Ayes 248 Nays 169 Feb 03, 2012
On the Conference Report
-
H.R.3578 Baseline Reform Act of 2011
Ayes 177 Nays 238 Feb 03, 2012
On the Motion to Recommit
-
H.R.3567 WIN for Children and Families Act
Ayes 395 Nays 27 Feb 01, 2012 On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended
-
H.R.3835 To extend the pay limitation for Members of Co...
Ayes 309 Nays 117 Feb 01, 2012 On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass
-
H.R.1173 Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security ...
Ayes 267 Nays 159 Feb 01, 2012 On Passage of the Bill
-
All the Best Info
OpenCongress brings together all the best info about Congress in one place. When you link to OpenCongress pages, your readers have access to not only the official details of bills and votes, but also the big picture. Read more ways you can use OpenCongress.
-
Track What's Happening
Congress can be difficult to follow. OpenCongress provides easy ways to track all the things you care about. Subscribe to RSS feeds or email alerts to automatically receive updates on bills, votes, issues, and more. Also, you can join "My OpenCongress" to create a profile page that tracks all your political interests in one place -- join or login, it's free and takes less than a minute.
-
Make Your Voice Heard
All too often, Congress is closed-off from meaningful public input. OpenCongress gives you free tools to contact Congress and open a dialogue with your elected officials. With your free "My OpenCongress" account, you can vote "aye" or "nay" on bills, give personal approval ratings to Members of Congress, post comments in discussion forums, and write your Members of Congress directly from OpenCongress -- join or login.
-
Share Valuable Info
Congress is complex. OpenCongress have built-in features to help you find the most useful info about your interests, then share it with your online communities. One click shares any page to Digg, Reddit, Facebook, e-mail a friend, and more. Social networking with "My OpenCongress" allows you to make friends with other users near and far, then follow all their comments and votes -- join or login to get started.
-
Watchdog Your Government
OpenCongress gives you the ability to oversee your elected officials and all of our Members of Congress. Together, we can build effective accountability and transparency in Congress. "My OpenCongress" profiles have "Watchdog" tools that allow you to compare your votes on bills with your Senators' and Representative's votes, as well as what other constituents in your state and Congressional district support and oppose -- join or login to start Watchdogging and get local.
About OpenCongress
OpenCongress brings together official government data with news coverage, blog posts, public comments, and more to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress. Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists already know what's really going on in Congress. Now, everyone can be an insider.
OpenCongress is a free, open-source, not-for-profit, and non-partisan public resource website. OpenCongress is a project of the Participatory Politics Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to encourage civic engagement. The Sunlight Foundation is our Founding and Primary Supporter. To read more about our mission, our open data sources, and how Congress works, see about OpenCongress. To read more about how individuals and organizations can use this site to find and share the best available info about their political interests, see how to use OpenCongress.
Get Updates with Our E-mail List
Stay updated about major site developments: new data, new features, and new ways of interacting with Congress. We will only send you important e-mails and we won't share your email address with anyone.
Contact Us
We are always interested in hearing from you: How do you use the site? What would make it more useful? Have you found a bug? Email us with feedback: . If you support the mission of OpenCongress and would like to help, volunteers are encouraged to join our open-source development team. Whether you're a web developer, a graphic designer, a political blogger, or a person with ideas about how to make Congress more open, contact us anytime to get involved.