Sunshine Week 2013 is well underway. While yesterday we looked at how well our state government made information available online, today we turn our attention to Capitol Hill.

This week is about supporting policies that maintain our right to know and the importance of open government. So how does Congress do just that? Using Sunlight’s Capitol Words tool, let’s take a look at how lawmakers talk about Sunshine Week.

Democrats say “FOIA” the most in Congress, with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) leading the pack. The senator is also at the top when “right to know” is mentioned in the Congressional Record.

The “open government” chart (see above) on Capitol Words illustrates how Congress began using the term more and more in recent years. You can see lots of spikes in 2007 when Congress was debating and passing the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act.

And since Sunshine Week coincides with the birthday of James Madison, here is how Congress remembers our fourth president.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we wanted to see what Congress keeps close to its heart. Using Capitol Words, we searched the Congressional Record to see what lawmakers love from the good ole’ U. S of A. to baked goods to — well, themselves.

Comparing these common declarations, Capitol Words shows that Democrats and Republicans are pretty even when it comes to love (50% to 49%, respectively), while Republicans say “I hate” more than their colleagues across the aisle (54% to 45%).

Congress regularly mentions a love of country and our democratic principals. Since 1996, the phrase “I love my country” is more popular among Democrats than Republicans. However, GOP lawmakers say “I love the Constitution” more.

Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell love their chamber, but former Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) said “I love the Senate” more than anyone else. When the current Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie served in Congress, he said “I love the House” the most.

Our elected officials like to talk about their personal interests, too. Former comedian Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) loves TV, and Reps. Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) love football. And former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) loves pie (but not pie charts).

Have a very Happy Valentine’s Day courtesy of Capitol Words. And don’t forget Congress loves you.

‘Tis the season for application programming interfaces. Sunlight is in a festive mood. Not only are we hosting a pretty rad open house this week, but we have the perfect present for the open data developer in your life: a Sunlight Labs API key!

Here are our “12 days of APIs,” with a few bulk data sets thrown in to round it out. No singing required! Be sure to also check out some new additions and better accessibility we’ll have available in 2013.

12 minutes spent researching our API offerings on Sunlight Academy, which includes a brief tutorial video.

11 television markets reported more than 1,500 political ad filings this election. Download data about who bought more than $3 billion in political ads in 2012 from Political Ad Sleuth.

10 methods provided in the Sunlight Congress API. Our most popular API includes basic information on members of Congress, legislator IDs and lookups between places and the politicians that represent them.

9 political races had more than $20 million in outside spending this election. Download the bulk data on the money spent by super PACs, unions, corporations, nonprofits and other groups this cycle at Follow the Unlimited Money.

8 data sets covered by the Influence Explorer API (neé TransparencyData), which includes federal and state campaign contributions, federal lobbying, government grants and contracts, EPA violations, federal regulations and more.

7 collections presented in the Real Time Congress API. Get as close to real-time data as possible on bills, votes, amendments, videos, floor updates, committee hearings and documents.

6 standard arguments to query in the Capitol Words API. Search the Capitol Record since 1996 and filter your results by state, party, chamber, date, start date or end date.

5(0) states available in the Open States API, which also covers D.C. and Puerto Rico. Use the RESTful API or bulk download to access the only comprehensive collection of state legislative data in the U.S.

4 ways to get Political Party Time data. Use the JSON feed, CSV file, RSS feed or relational zip file to know when politicians are fundraising and who is hosting the events.

3 mobile apps powered by our APIs: Real Time Congress for iPhone, Congress for Android and OpenStates for iPhone and iPad. (And check out Call on Congress if you don’t have a smartphone.)

2 options to get Scout alerts, by email or via text message. Scout uses a variety of Sunlight APIs—Capitol Words, Real Time Congress and Open States—to deliver real-time policy alerts on state and national issues, as well as has special user option for developers.

And a listserv to follow what’s happening in Sunlight Labs.

Flickr photo of partridge in a pear tree light display by K. van Santen.

On Monday morning, Sunlight Reporting Group Managing Editor Kathy Kiely was a guest on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Her conversation with host John McArdle, and subsequent viewer questions, offers a great primer on the impact of money in politics this election year. From mega donors and super PACs to campaign spending and disclosure rules, it's a great video to check out.

Watch the full interview below.

Like many people living near the East Coast, we are anxiously following the development of Hurricane Sandy. The National Weather Service dubbed it a "Frankenstorm," which could also accurately describe this week's Political Money Weather Report. Watch the latest episode below.

This week we take a look at how the Stealthy Wealthy gave to super PACs this election year, now that the latest FEC filings are in. We also track how the campaigns, super PACs and labor unions are spending big on get out the vote and canvassing activities.

Got a topic you want to see in next week's video? Let us know in the comments.