U.S. Congress

$1,000 bounty: How do your members of Congress spend their day?

by Conor Kenny — September 14, 2006 - 11:10am
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • Our friends over at the Sunlight Network kicked off their Punch Clock Campaign today, which is offering a $1,000 "bounty" to any citizen who can get a member of Congress (or $250 for their challenger) to publicly post their daily schedule on the Internet. It's an intriguing new twist on the citizen muckraking model exemplified by the blogger campaign to reveal the senators that placed a secret hold on the earmark transparency bill.

    They've already gotten one response, from Texan Alvis Yardley, who says that Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) is refusing to release his calendar due to "national security concerns"—despite the fact that the pledge only asks for the previous day's calendar. Guess we can't let the terrorists know where Carter was yesterday.

    Congresspedia's "Congress in the News" updates, Sept. 5-11, 2006

    by Conor Kenny — September 14, 2006 - 10:11am
  • Topics: Congresspedia News Updates, U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government
  • Federal investigators are probing a land transaction that protected 40 acres from development in the neighborhood of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.).

    • Latest Update: Exposing Earmarks

    by Conor Kenny — September 7, 2006 - 3:43pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • The politics of “secret holds” continues in the Senate.

    Update: Congress vs. the President

    by Conor Kenny — September 6, 2006 - 3:59pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • A few weeks ago, we first posted on the subject of presidential signing statements. At that time, we issued a challenge to all the citizen journalists out there to help us pin down the positions of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-Pa.) Presidential Signing Statements Act, where the bill currently resides. The bill would grant Congress the right to file suit in order to determine the constitutionality of signing statements.

    New Update: Exposing Earmarks

    by Conor Kenny — September 1, 2006 - 1:14am
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • The secret is out!

    Wanted: Wisconsin Media Activists for FCC Hearing

    by Diane Farsetta — August 30, 2006 - 9:05am

    Tell the FCC: No fake news!

    Do you want more quality journalism? Are you concerned about the consolidation of media ownership? Do you think important issues don't get enough air time? Is your community fairly represented in the media?

    Main Source: 
    Center for Media and Democracy, August 30, 2006

    Update: Exposing Earmarks

    by Conor Kenny — August 28, 2006 - 9:13pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • It has been nearly two weeks since our first post on earmarks, and there are some interesting updates to report. The Sunlight Foundation has continued to employ new and innovative tools in its quest to expose earmarks, which often glide into law without legislative or executive review. Sunlight, which cosponsors Congresspedia with the Center for Media and Democracy, has teamed up with Human Events Online, Citizens Against Government Waste, Porkbusters.org, The Heritage Foundation, The Club for Growth, Townhall.com, and the Washington Examiner (and Mark Tapscott) to sift through the 1,867 earmarks which were inserted into the 2007 Labor-Health and Human Services appropriations bill (H.R. 5647) (an increase from only 51 last year). The collaborative effort has led to the development of a comprehensive database of the earmarks, tracking the money to the designated state and program.

    The Do-Nothingest Congress

    by Conor Kenny — August 23, 2006 - 6:37pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • Nearly sixty years ago President Harry S. Truman infamously derided the 1947-1948 Congress as the "Do-Nothing Congress" for meeting for only 108 days. Well, Harry must be rolling in his grave, because the current U.S. House of Representatives (now on their annual August break) is projected to spend a mere 79 days in session in 2006.

    This is largely due to their extended "district work periods" in which they go home and meet with constituents, campaign and fit in a few rounds of golf. While most Americans returned from their holiday vacation in the first week of January, the House took nearly the entire month off, commencing the session on January 31st. In February, the House met for only 47 hours, an average work week for many Americans. While the year still has over 4 months to go, the calendar leaves a maximum of only 16 additional days for the House to complete its business. Meanwhile, the Senate is also projected to have a light workload this year, devoting only 125 days to legislative business, a 34-day drop from 2005.

    As part of Congresspedia's continuing development of articles on how Congress works, we've looked back at the last dozen years of congressional calendars, which are set by the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader. You can see the results at our new article on congressional calendars, which includes this interesting chart:

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