Thank you unlawflcombatnt
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more from the site:
GovTrack.us is a tool by Civic Impulse, LLC to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting and innovating government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology. You'll find here the status of U.S. federal legislation, voting records for the Senate and House of Representatives, information on Members of Congress, district maps, as well as congressional committees and the Congressional Record.
The site is a research tool (much like the government website THOMAS but better), but also a free tracking service. Pick up Trackers throughout the site to make a personalized feed or get email updates. You can also embed a few widgets on your own webpage to keep your visitors up to date about legislation.
Innovation and experimentation is also a large part of GovTrack. We have a unique community Q&A system: ask a question about a bill and see if other visitors will provide an answer. That's worked surprisingly well. We also invented an advanced bill text viewer and track tweets about bills.
How it works
The information shown on this site is assembled in an automated way from official websites (primarily from the website THOMAS, the official website for the status of legislation run by the Library of Congress, but a full list of sources is on the credits page). The process of gathering the information is entirely automatic and Congress isn't always very happy to share, so you may find occasional errors here, but we take errors very seriously and work hard to correct them.
The status and text of legislation is usually delayed by about 24 hours and roll call votes usually appear on the site within an hour because we can only get information as fast as the official sites put it online. The statistics are updated at most weekly, and may not be updated during the initial few weeks of the 111th Congress.
Our database also extends into the past. You can search and browse bills going back to the 103rd Congress (1993-94), though the text of legislation goes back only as far as the 106th Congress (1999-2000). Roll call votes are available back to 1990 for the House and 1989 for the Senate, which is as far back as you'll find this information available anywhere online.
Also...
•Tweeting Bills - Recommended Hashtags
•How GovTrack can be useful for Hill staff
More about the site
An independent, non-partisan, and open-source website launched in September 2004, GovTrack.us was the first website worldwide whose primary goal was to provide comprehensive legislative tracking for everyday citizens by embracing the power of technology such as "Web 2.0" and "open data". GovTrack.us was a 2006 Webby Award nominee, has been mentioned in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and has even been used as a reference in footnotes of a few federal court cases! (See press coverage.) Currently the site is in use by around 30,000 people a day and sends out hundreds to thousands of email updates each night. GovTrack is also a hub of legislative data that is used to power other websites, such as OpenCongress, MAPLight, and these other websites.
This site was created and is run by Joshua Tauberer and became a project of Civic Impulse, LLC when the company was formed in September 2009. By day Josh is a PhD graduate student and also a software developer. Steve Pearson currently moderates the bill Q&A system. GovTrack isn't affiliated with the government or any other group and our only ongoing funding comes from the advertising. We run a modest profit, but the point has never been to make this a business.
To send me a note, email me at operations@govtrack.us. Please don't email me to contact your Member of Congress or to do research for you, though! Also, please don't cite me personally for information you find on this site as the information is derived entirely from other databases. I generally don't do research by hand or exercise any editorial effect over what you see here.
Starting in July 2008, several others have contributed to the development of this site. Daniel Gabriele was responsible for the current look and feel. Kevin Henry developed the interactivity on the new bill text display (supported by a Sunlight Foundation grant). Thanks to Mike Drescher for collecting some images of Members of Congress. Ben Rellick designed some updated logos.
Also...
•Official Merchandise: T-shirts, mousepads, and mugs
•About the all-seeing-eye logo
GovTrack supports open government and open knowledge.
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They also have GovTrack Insider which is a for profit site where they endorse.
About GovTrack Insider
GovTrack Insider takes you inside the legislative process on Capitol Hill. We have a team of paid reporters going where no one has taken you before inside Congress, and we combine those reports with nonpartisan reporting from other sources. GovTrack Insider is brought to you by Civic Impulse, LLC .
For more about our team of reporters, see Writers or Write For Us. Advocacy organizations may be interested in hiring our staff. Advertisers can advertise here.
Team
Joshua Tauberer, Editor-in-Chief
Joshua is the director of Civic Impulse, LLC. As an engineer at heart and a scientist by training, he created (and still runs) GovTrack.us, the site that started the “open data” movement for the U.S. Congress. Joshua holds a BA from Princeton University, 2004; an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, 2008, in linguistics; and is a PhD candidate in linguistics, also at the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh Sulkin, Deputy Editor for Site Development
Josh Sulkin is an engineer, programmer, and political wannabe. Civic projects he's worked on include FlyOnTime.us and IlliniBookExchange.com. He holds a BS and MS and is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Aliza Wasserman, Deputy Editor for Outreach & Participation
Aliza uses public policy to make America healthier. She's our director of outreach and citizen participation. Aliza is also currently a policy analyst for the Boston Public Health Commission. She holds a BA from Cornell and a masters in public health and nutrition from Tufts.
Greg Elin, Advisor
Greg Palmer, Advisor
www.govtrackinsider.com/about-------------------------
They also have Civic Impulse, LLC
Civic Impulse LLC
Innovating at the intersection of civics & technology.
CI was started by “civic hacker” Joshua Tauberer, who some have called the “grandfather” of the open-data movement for the U.S. Congress and a “data crusader”. CI builds tools that fosters civic participation and government transparency but also works with government staff and nonprofits on improving government data policy.
GovTrack.us, launched in 2004, was the first website to apply the principles of open data and Web 2.0 to the U.S. Congress. It catalyzed the development of a community of like-minded developers and shaped the data-oriented open government movement that we see today. About GovTrack | Press Coverage
GovTrackInsider.com, launched in 2010, is an experiment in online journalism and government transparency.
Planet oGosh! is a aggregator for blogs related to “Open Government Open Source Hacking”. (Like the acronym?)
The New Jersey Gang Survey Viewer is a visualization tool for the New Jersey State Police Street Gang Survey 2007 developed by five volunteers over the course of a weekend in December 2009, as part of the Great American Hackathon.
We’re planning one more new project in 2010. Stay tuned!
For more about CI, see Joshua’s track record.
Team
Joshua Tauberer, Director
Joshua is an engineer at heart and a scientist by training. He began GovTrack.us in his spare time in 2001 while a student and today carries that drive forward with Civic Impulse. Joshua is the sole member (that’s LLC-speak for owner) of Civic Impulse. Joshua is also a senior software developer at LARSA, Inc., a higly specialized engineering software company. He holds a BA from Princeton University, 2004; an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, 2008, in linguistics; and is a PhD candidate in linguistics, also at the University of Pennsylvania.
Josh Sulkin, Developer
Josh Sulkin is an engineer, programmer, and political wannabe. He is developing our new yet-to-be-announced project. Civic projects he's worked on include FlyOnTime.us and IlliniBookExchange.com. He holds a BS and MS and is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Aliza Wasserman, Outreach & Participation Director
Aliza uses public policy to make America healthier. She's our director of outreach and citizen participation. Aliza is also currently a policy analyst for the Boston Public Health Commission. She holds a BA from Cornell and a masters in public health and nutrition from Tufts.
Steve Pearson
Steve moderates the community Q&A feature for bills on GovTrack.
Civic Impulse, LLC was founded in September 2009 and is registered in the District of Columbia.
www.civicimpulse.com/