The Congress.gov Top 13 from the 113th Congress in 2013

The Congress.gov team had a very busy and successful 2013.  Earlier this year Tammie and I were interviewed about Congress.gov for GovLoop’s DorobekINSIDER. To our pleasant surprise, we were recently named to GovLoop’s list of 20 Innovations that Mattered in 2013.

During 2013 we added legislative data throughout the year.  We launched with bills from the 107th-112th Congresses in September 2012.  We added the 103rd-106th in June 2013.  Then we added bill detail information from the 93rd-102nd Congresses in December 2013.  We made many enhancements to Congress.gov.  Here are a few of the highlights:

• the Congressional Record in January;
• all actions to Congress.gov and a browse-by-date page for the Congressional Record in April;
• Committee Reports, Standing Committee pages, and the ability to “Search within results” in June; and
• the Constitution Annotated and more in September.

Then in November we started to redirect the THOMAS.gov URL to Congress.gov and renamed the Twitter account.

Congress.gov displays the three most-viewed bills towards the top left of the Congress.gov homepage.  Certain legislation gets so popular that the same bills can remain there for weeks.  With that in mind, I wanted to share a larger list of the most viewed bills for the year.  Rather than just the top ten, I added three more to it and opted for thirteen.

1. H.R.499 – Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013
2. H.J.Res.15 – Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment…
3. H.R.748 – Universal National Service Act
4. H.R.226 – Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for our Streets Act
5. H.Res.368 – Relating to consideration of the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 59) making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014…
6. S.649 – Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013
7. H.R.2818 – Surveillance State Repeal Act
8. H.R.933 – Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013
9. H.R.992 – Swaps Regulatory Improvement Act
10. H.R.624 – Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act
11. H.R.1406 – Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013
12. H.R.258 – Stolen Valor Act of 2013
13. H.Res.36 – Establishing a select committee to investigate and report on the attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Two of these passed both the House and Senate and became law.  Do you know which ones?

Over the course of the year, I frequently received requests to add new features or content to the system.  Usually, what was requested was next on our agenda, which helped reassure me that we were on the right track.

As we continue our quest to retire THOMAS, what would you like to see added to Congress.gov in 2014?