It's Your Congress -- Learn What You Wanna Know

I mentioned recently that I was planning to write more about Congress -- alas, the reason I haven't done so is I'm still in the process of crossing that learning barrier before the elusive blogging comfort zone. In lieu of writing about Congressional actions and functions, I thought I could share some of the web sites I use in order to follow Congress. My favorite, by far, is GovTrack, a site which collects publically available infomation and displays it in a very user-friendly manner. GovTrack is especially awesome for statistical junkies like me; did you know that Ron Paul is one of the least successful Congressmen in terms of bills he has sponsored getting out of committee? An excellent alternative to GovTrack is the Library of Congress' THOMAS, a site I frequently visit when I want to read the full text of bills or see a rundown of daily Congressional action. I don't always want both houses of Congress somewhat lumped together as GovTrack and THOMAS do; when that is the case, I visit the official sites of the Senate or the House of Representatives depending on my need, and those are also good sites to visit for general information on either body. For information on members of Congress both past and present, I visit the Congressional Biographical Directory -- recently, this site helped me discover that even Mike Gravel was young once, and that some people call him Maurice!