Energy Tops Congress’ Most Commonly Used Words in 2008

Sunlight Unveils New Suite of Features in its Revamped Capitol Words Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 18, 2008

Contact: Gabriela Schneider 202/742-1520 ext 236

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy, health and service were the hotbed issues for Congress in 2008, according to the Sunlight Foundation’s Capitol Words, a site that converts the statements of members of Congress in the Congressional Record into data.

Today, Sunlight announced the relaunch of its Capitol Words Web site, which now contains expanded capabilities, to succinctly display which issues lawmakers address on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. To give citizens this at-a-glance view of the inner workings of Congress, the site also provides tag clouds, geographical ‘heat maps’ and charts to show with greater granularity which words are most frequently used by Congress as a whole, by state delegation or by specific lawmaker.

“In 2008, the word, ‘energy’ was either spoken on the House and Senate floor or inserted into the Congressional Record’s extended remarks over 50,000 times,” said Ellen Miller, executive director and co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation. “In many ways, Capitol Words serves as a ‘zeitgeist-o-meter,’ as each word, when used over and over again, serves to reveal the pressing legislative issue of the day (or sometimes helps explain the legislative process). We created the site not only to show a kind of snapshot of what’s on legislators’ minds, but to inspire more digging into the Congressional Record to research what our elected officials are discussing and why.”

Capitol Words provides data, a calendar view of the word of the day and charts showing word usage trends dating back to the second session of the 106th Congress (January 24, 2000). Views that attribute word usage to lawmakers go back to the beginning of the 110th Congress (January 3, 2007).

The Sunlight Foundation supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. Through its projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government. Visit SunlightFoundation.com to learn more about Sunlight’s projects, including The Open Senate Project, Party Time and OpenCongress.org.
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