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Archive for the Congress Category (219 posts)

Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for November 2019

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Last month Margaret shared the update to our Committee Profile pages that added new links to our Committee Schedule.  This was one in a series of improvements surrounding the Committee Schedule that first launched in January.  We added the next three scheduled hearings to the homepage, links from the hearing pages to the legislation or nomination that is being discussed, links from the legislation to the committee hearing, and all of the hearing pages to our search, which also enables a user to get a saved search alert on committee meetings.

Enhancements for November 2019

Below are the new enhancements for this release.

Enhancement – Senate Amendments – Withdrawn Cosponsors

  • Withdrawn cosponsors are now displayed on Senate Amendments.

Enhancement – Search Results – Accessibility

  • Coding improvements have been made to allow screen readers to navigate to search results with one click.

Visit our Congress.gov Enhancements page for all the updates to Congress.gov.

Search Tip

This week’s tip is on the new expanded view for the Committee Schedule:

Today’s Congress.gov Tip follows up on the October 4 tip, when we announced that you can filter the Committee Schedule by chamber or committee.

Here’s another helpful new Committee Schedule feature:

Select the Expanded option in the Weekly View to see detailed information for each hearing and meeting scheduled at a glance, including hearing titles, witness lists and links to related legislation (when available).

Switching between Compact and Expanded on the Weekly Committee Schedule

Most-Viewed Bills

Below are the most-viewed bills for the week of November 3, 2019.  All of them are from the 116th Congress.

1. H.Res.660 Directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes.
2. H.Res.296 Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
3. H.R.1111 Department of Peacebuilding Act of 2019
4. S.386 Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019
5. H.R.3055 Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2020
6. H.R.1044 Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019
7. H.R.4695 Protect Against Conflict by Turkey Act
8. H.R.823 Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act
9. S.1838 Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019
10. H.R.724 Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act

Please leave a comment below or share feedback with enhancements you would like for Congress.gov.

Congress.gov New, Tip and Top for October 2019

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Robert brought us the last Congress.gov update in late September.  That update included new enhancements to the Congressional Committee Schedule page.  Legislation pages now link an associated committee’s meeting pages from the overview box. In response to user requests, the weekly Committee Schedule now has a compact/expanded view option. Chamber of Origin, House, Senate, and Joint […]

Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for September 2019, Part 2

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Andrew brought us the last Congress.gov update at the beginning of September. That update included the ability to search the Committee Schedule from the global “All Sources” search option, a new look for the appropriations table, and the addition of Law Library of Congress reports to the homepage. With this release, we are bringing you more […]

The Constitution Annotated Is Now Easier to Search and Browse

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Constitution Day is tomorrow, but it’s already off to a great start with the release of the Congressional Research Service’s new version of The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, better known as the Constitution Annotated. The Constitution Annotated allows you to “read about the Constitution in plain English…providing a comprehensive overview […]

Searching the Committee Schedule: Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for September 2019

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One of the new features to Congress.gov that we have been refining this year is the Committee Schedule, which “combines announcements about future House and Senate committee meetings and hearings for the selected week.” Robert announced its launch in January.  Since then, we have added indicators for rescheduled and postponed meetings, upcoming meetings to the […]

Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for July, Part 2

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Earlier this month, Margaret highlighted the new addition to the Committee Schedule, which shows, under Supporting Documentation, any related metadata, links to legislation, treaties, or nominations. Today’s release continues to refine the Committee Schedule. Enhancements for July 2019, Part 1 Enhancement – Committee Schedule – Weekly View Committee Schedule weekly view includes a calendar-based date picker […]

Congress.gov New, Tip and Top for July, Part 1

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Last month Robert provided information about the June update to Congress.gov, which provided an enhancement for the display of errata associated with committee reports. This month’s first release includes an enhancement to the Committee Schedule detail pages display, providing supporting documentation when available. Enhancements for July 2019, Part 1 This release also includes page navigation, which […]

Congress.gov New, Tip and Top for June 2019

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Earlier this month, Margaret shared the news that Congress.gov now has enhanced navigation for member profile pages. With this month’s release, the display for errata associated with committee reports has been enhanced. The Congress.gov glossary defines errata as “lists of errors in congressional publications. The corrections are printed on sheets, or pages. The errata sheets […]

Congress.gov New, Tip and Top for May 2019, Part 2

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Earlier this month, Andrew shared the update to our committee schedule page, which launched in January 2019. With this month’s second release, we have enhanced the navigation of member profile pages.  When viewing a bill or resolution on a member profile page, you can use the navigation arrows to move from the next or previous […]

Congress.gov New, Tip, and Top for May 2019

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In April, Robert shared that the new “LIVE” icon was added to the homepage when a House committee hearing is streaming. With this month’s release, we have updated our committee profile pages so that when you click on legislation or other items in the list you will then have arrows to take you to the next and previous items […]