OpenCongress brings together official, congressional data and allows anyone to track how a bill becomes a law, the voting records of elected officials and more. Major features of OpenCongress include:
Representatives and Senators — connect with lawmakers and track their votes and bill sponsorships, plus watch their YouTube videos and review campaign donations.
Bills — read and follow legislation in Congress, including popular bills or browse by more than 4,000 issue areas.
Votes — see the “ayes” and “nays” broken down by political party for all floor actions, as well as compare two lawmakers to one another using the Head-to-Head tool.
· The Data Powering OpenCongress
Sunlight’s sole ownership of OpenCongress allowed us to refresh the data that powers that site. Bill, legislator, committee, vote, campaign finance and issue data are collected from official sources, including the Library of Congress, GovTrack, Congressional Research Service and the Sunlight Foundation. The site is updated daily and searchable since the start of the 109th Congress in January 2005. OpenCongress is open source. Developers interested in using the data on OpenCongress should check out the Sunlight Foundation’s Congress API.
OpenCongress is part of collection of Sunlight apps and websites that shines a light on Capitol Hill. Smart phone users can download the free Congress app (for iOS and Android); Party Time documents political fundraising events; and Influence Explorer connects the dots between campaign contributions, lobbying spending and other government activity.
Sunlight acquired OpenCongress.org, the leading nonprofit website for tracking the U.S. Congress, for $450,000 in a cash transaction.
· The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Visit http://SunlightFoundation.com to learn more about Sunlight’s projects, including http://PoliticalPartyTime.org and http://influenceexplorer.comand http://Scout.SunlightFoundation.com.
Value is the only commonality in an increasingly complex, challenging and interdependent world.