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Congress.gov October 2021 New, Tip, and Top

Posted by: Robert Brammer

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Andrew’s Congress.gov post at the end of September featured a video that provided an overview of 10 recent enhancements to Congress.gov. In the latest release, we have made it easier for users to search for historical congressional legislation, or more recent legislation, by grouping together these options through the use of checkboxes on the legislative quick search form and the advanced legislation search form. In addition, when you choose to search historical legislation, fields that are not available in that data will be disabled.

A screenshot demonstrating the legislation quick search form on Congress.gov with the historical and more recent Congress boxes highlighted.
Checkboxes make it more convenient for users to choose to search for historical or recent legislation on Congress.gov.

Enhancements

Enhancement – Legislation – Search

  • Congress checkboxes allow you to separate historical material from more recent legislation when using the legislation search form or the advanced legislation search form.
  • Options for searching metadata, such as sponsors and committees, are disabled when you have selected only historical Congresses. Legislation for historical Congresses includes titles, text, and an abbreviated actions list.
  • Tooltips, visible when you move your cursor over the icon next to a Congress checkbox, display helpful reminders and links to help pages for more details.

Enhancement – Congressional Record – Bound Edition

Search Tip

Now that over a century of congressional floor debates are available in Congress.gov, you can make the most of it by using the keyword in context feature to search the Bound Congressional Record. On the Congress.gov homepage, click on the dropdown menu next to the search box, choose “Congressional Record” in the dropdown, type in your search terms, and on the results screen at the top left-hand corner, check “show Keywords in Context.” This will display a snippet of text below each search result, showing the keywords that you searched for in context so you can decide if the result is relevant to you.

Most-Viewed Bills

These are the most-viewed bills for the week of October 10, 2021:

1. H.R.3684 [117th] Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
2. H.R.1319 [117th] American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
3. H.R.4350 [117th] National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022
4. H.R.4980 [117th] To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that any individual traveling on a flight that departs from or arrives to an airport inside the United States or a territory of the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and for other purposes.
5. H.R.5376 [117th] Build Back Better Act
6. H.R.5305 [117th] Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act
7. H.Res.57 [117th] Impeaching Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States, for abuse of power by enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
8. H.R.3755 [117th] Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021
9. S.1301 [117th] Promoting Physical Activity for Americans Act
10. H.R.3617 [117th] MORE Act of 2021

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