At the 2016 Legislative Data and Transparency Conference, attendees explored new ways of opening up the legislative branch to the public.
Continue readingMajor updates to bulk legislative data announced
Today's meeting of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force produced some major news. Specifically, there will be a lot of new bulk legislative data in the new year.
Continue readingBig step for public access to legislation
The House Appropriations Committee made a major move towards improving public access to information, announcing new, machine-readable bulk data on legislation will be available soon.
Continue readingThe Library of Congress Really Really Does Not Want To Give You Your Data
It's 2013, and the Library of Congress seems to think releasing public data about Congress is a risk to the public. The Library of Congress is in charge of [THOMAS.gov](http://thomas.loc.gov/), and its successor [Congress.gov](http://congress.gov). These sites publish some of the most fundamental information about Congress — the history and status of bills. Whether it's immigration law or SOPA, patent reform or Obamacare, the Library of Congress will tell you: *What is Congress working on? Who's working on it? When did that happen?* Except they won't let you download that information.
Continue reading