Track and Research Congress

A couple of days ago, I made an entry with links to two Presidential candidates' "Issues" pages. I've since been looking for a place that independently reviews those plans, and the history of how the candidates have acted in the past. While I haven't found that review, I have found something that helps with the latter...

GovTrack.us is a site that allows you to do two main things -- keep abreast of pending legislation and research past legislation. So not only did I find a way to see how every Representative and Senator voted on every bill, but if there is a person or issue you want to keep track of in the future, you can set up Feeds to get that info pushed to you!

Want to look up how McCain/Obama voted on the appalling FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 2248)? Go to the View Votes page and you can see (I'm happy with neither). Though I find that my Representative (Shadegg) voted as I like (this time).

I've also set up Tracked Events to monitor things related to my two Senators and my Rep. I now track changes with an RSS (or Atom) feed (ask me if you want to know more about feeds), and I've put a widget to the right, "Tracked Events in Congress" so you can see my example. I'll find out if it's information overload, or if it's the right amount to make me a more informed citizen. Given time, I think it will help me make more informed decisions - especially when deciding whether to vote for an incumbent!