Site Updates – Summer 2012 #1
Busy as always, we’ve got some more new things on GovTrack this month: Congressional District Maps now include redistricting maps for the upcoming elections. Except for Rhode Island — we’re still...
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Ryan’s Record: By the Numbers
Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican party’s presumptive Vice Presidential nominee, took office 13 years ago. We can learn a lot from his legislative record as the congressman from Wisconsin’s 1st district....
View ArticleThe VP candidates agreed on 52 substantive bills
Partisan politics drives us to look at differences. But during the time Rep. Paul Ryan served along side then-Sen. Joe Biden from 1999 to 2008, our VP candidates voted the same way on 52 substantive...
View ArticleSummer 2012 Updates #2: August Edition
We’ve added a few great new search features to GovTrack, as well as other improvements. Check them out: Find Similar Bills: There are often multiple bills introduced on a topic and major changes to...
View ArticleThe math behind some of our stats
If you’re interested in the math behind some of our statistics — the ideology/leadership charts and the bill prognosis scores — you might find interesting a talk I gave last week. I had the opportunity...
View ArticleSite Updates – Fall 2012
From a new start page to improved maps, here’s what we’ve been working on this fall: There is a new Start page to find something to track and get email updates for, and you can now get email updates on...
View ArticleBill prognosis gets a few improvements
Back in April we introduced “bill prognosis” (original post), a statistical analysis of how likely bills are to be enacted. Today we’re making a few improvements. Read on for more about it. For each...
View ArticleWelcome to the 113th Congress
Yesterday the 113th Congress was sworn in and began filing bills. Here’s how that affects GovTrack and other updates to the site this week. For the 113th Congress: We updated our roster of Members of...
View ArticleOur Analysis Methodology: Technical Details
We’ve added a new Analysis Methodology page. This page provides details on our ideology, leadership, and prognosis analyses so that they can be understood better by our users and so they can be...
View ArticleWinter 2013 Updates 1
We’ve added historical information on bills from 1951-1978 and made some other improvements to the site recently. Here are the details: Using the Statutes at Large, the compilation of laws enacted by...
View ArticleWinter 2013 Updates 2
Here’s a list of some of the recent improvements to GovTrack. We started writing original summaries of select bills. Read them all here. Vice presidents now have pages on GovTrack. Remember that they...
View ArticleThe U.S. House holds transparency conference, says access to law must be free
This year the U.S. House has continued on its path toward greater transparency, and this week in particular two developments are worth noting: The House’s committee on House Administration held its...
View ArticleSpring 2013 Updates
Since the last update, here’s what we’ve been working on. We fixed some major features that hadn’t been working since the start of the 113th Congress in January: Committee meetings are now being...
View ArticleCivic data to inspire: the Girl emPower iPad app
We’re proud to see GovTrack’s database put to use to by others to empower individuals. In this guest post, Andrew Cavanagh describes the iPad app he created with Laura Phelps called Girl emPower, which...
View ArticleSummer 2013 Updates
You asked for widgets, better accessibility, and improvements to email updates, and you got it. Here’s how we’ve improved GovTrack since the last update: Major Updates Our blog post and video Lawmakers...
View ArticleCan committees amend bills on their own?
GovTrack user Jonathan asks: At what point are amendments made in subcommittees considered to be adopted? Some of the language I’ve found implies that subcommittees have the authority to amend bills...
View ArticleWhere’s the data, Boehner?
No legislative branch agency makes available a spreadsheet that lists every bill introduced in Congress. How can there be meaningful transparency if the public cannot get a simple list of bills?...
View ArticleUnderstanding the SNAP cuts as a part of broader food and agriculture policy
This evening’s House vote on the food assistance program SNAP is significant not only in the size of the cuts proposed but also by separating food assistance policy from agricultural subsidy policy....
View ArticleAn update on getting legislative data from the House
For more than a decade I’ve been prodding Congress to publish something as simple as a spreadsheet of bills in Congress. They have pretty websites listing bills like Congress.gov, yes, but if you want...
View ArticleLegislative status during the shutdown
Since we don’t know how long the federal government shutdown will last, here’s a brief run-down of how the shutdown will affect GovTrack: We’re not a government website, as you hopefully know, so we’re...
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