Congresspedia and Sunlight at the Conservative Political Action Conference

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I'm at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC representing Congresspedia and the Sunlight Foundation. So far it's been a great opportunity to tap into the conservative community's zeitgeist and find out what upcoming issues in Congress they are most interested in. I've had particularly interesting conversations with the folks from the National Rifle Association, American Foreign Policy Council, National Center for Public Policy Research and the Heritage Foundation about what they're working on. As Congresspedia expands to increasingly cover legislation and issues, the staff here will stay in touch with these organizations and help them and our citizen editors maintain the relevant articles on the wiki. We may even get some interesting (and hopefully productive) dialogues going between editors of opposing ideologies. Because, while people from different ends of the political spectrum may have different opinions, we should all have the same facts. Creating a common, collaborative knowledge base that all people can use to inform their opinions is one of the central – and most exciting – purposes of this project.

So, to kick things off, here are five "stub" pages we've created based on the topics Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) outlined today as important to conservatives in the coming year. If any of them interest you, please jump in and help us expand them into full and rich articles:

• Health care tax parity - President Bush's proposal to extend tax breaks to individuals who pay for their own health care;
• Immigration legislation;
• Judicial confirmations;
• The estate tax - or, as it's known in conservative circles, the "death tax"; and
• Stem cell legislation.