With Congress returning to start a new session, our friends at OpenCongress – a project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Participatory Politics Foundation – are making it easier than ever to track and rate what’s happening on Capitol Hill and organize support for the legislation and issues you care about.

It has never been easier to track and now rate what’s happening in your government. And it’s never been easier to meet friends and organize support for the legislation and issues you care about.

We’re very excited to unveil My OpenCongress – the first-ever social network designed for people who care about Congress. This is very cool: My OpenCongress provides a personalized view of all the information you want about the laws being made in Washington. It’s an easy-to-use, peer-to-peer way of sharing the most useful information about Congress, perfect for bloggers and membership groups. And if you want to organize a call-in day to let Congress know what you think, you can easily get in touch with other constituents in your district and mobilize your wider friends network.

My OpenCongress makes it super easy to track any bill, senator, representative or issue area on the site, simply by clicking "track this" at the top of any page. Back on your profile, you’ll have assembled a one-stop platform of everything you’re tracking in Congress, with a constantly-updated stream of their latest activities. Use your My OpenCongress profile to make your voice heard: vote "aye" or "nay" for every bill in Congress, give a personal approval rating to senators and representatives on a scale of 1-100, and see the total votes for each bill and lawmaker.

OpenCongress also launched new comment boards on pages for every bill, senator, and representative on the site. These comment boards allow real-world people to discuss the details of legislation, share links, evaluate political landscapes, and give their opinions. Boards are designed to "filter up" the comments rated "most helpful" by the user community, using a simple slider bar located next to each comment. What’s more, each user builds up a site-wide rating for all his or her comments, so there is an incentive for people with helpful insights, expertise, or "insider information" to comment more frequently.

OpenCongress already puts your legislators, bills, and what’s being written about each bill at your fingertips. Its new features are creating a unique pool of social wisdom about what’s really happening in Congress, combined with user-friendly ways to share that information. Use it to connect with other citizens to discuss and share knowledge about current legislation and legislative issues – and uncover and share the very best related news and blog coverage.

To get started, create your own My OpenCongress profile now, it’s free and only takes a minute. OpenCongress also provides a tutorial with suggestions on how to get started using My OpenCongress.