User comments on OpenCongress are designed to allow real-world people to contribute their knowledge, insight, and expertise to legislation in Congress. OpenCongress comment boards are an open public forum for community discussion. Any information posted here will be viewable by all visitors. For personal correspondence with Congress, please contact your Senators and your Representative directly.

These comment boards are designed to "filter up" the comments rated "most helpful" by users. Every OpenCongress user has the ability to set his or her personal ratings filter higher, to view only the comments rated most-helpful, or lower, to view every comment on a page. Also, every user earns a site-wide rating for all the comments he or she submits, which can be viewed on his or her personal profile page. This serves as an incentive for individuals with Congressional expertise, or simply frequently-helpful comments, to comment more often on bills.

Comments may illuminate any of the following: overlooked details on the substance of a bill, where different Members of Congress stand on a bill, evaluations of a bill's chances of passing into law, which outside groups support or oppose the bill, links to important news coverage or blog analysis of a bill, or simply an individual's opinion on a bill.

The more comments you rate, the better that comment boards work for everyone -- so please make frequent use of the slider bars next to each comment! Together we can get closer to what's really happening in Congress.