If a bill passed by majorities in both houses of Congress, and signed into law by a President who won with a strong mandate in most states, does not represent the will of the people, what would? According to Michele Bachmann, the will of the people is better represented by her own bill, H.R. 4903.

Name of 111th Congress bill calling for formal investigative commission regarding illegal surveillance, search and seizure of Americans’ private phone records: H.R. 104 Number of new cosponsors of H.R. 104 in Congress after revelations last week that the FBI both lied and broke the law to seize Americans’ phone records: Zero There’s not much else [...]

If you’re interested in federal policy regarding the “War on Drugs,” consider watching the Senate Judiciary Committee as it meets this Christmas Eve to consider S. 1789, at which time the committee will either send the bill to the floor of the Senate or kill it. S. 1789, also called the Fair Sentencing Act of [...]

Number of members of the House of Representatives signing on in support of H. Res. 329, a symbolic resolution commemorating the sinking of a steamboat 143 years ago today: 54 Number of members of the House of Representatives signing on in support of H.R. 104, a bill to create an independent commission to investigate practices [...]

If volume were an indicator of success, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-2) would be a knockout. Jackson has introduced no fewer than nine amendments to the Constitution of the United States this year. Let’s take a peek at these, the Jackson Nine: Jackson Amendment 1: H.J. Res. 28, providing a universal right to vote for [...]

Nearly two weeks ago, we examined the frequency of cosponsorship for all Bills and Joint Resolutions in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Cosponsorship is the signing of a member of Congress’ name to a bill, an act that formally indicates support for the bill, and thanks to the government Thomas database (named after [...]

In a race, we might consider the overall distance traveled by a car, but it’s also important to consider its speed. Similarly, in the United States Congress we might note what bills have accumulated the most cosponsors overall, but we might also want to consider which bills are accelerating forward by gaining cosponsors. To adopt [...]

A few days ago, I wrote a post describing the frequency distribution of bill cosponsorship in the Senate and House of Representatives for the 111th Congress so far. More particularly, I considered how many bills had gained how many cosponsors, then listed the five most cosponsored bills in each house of Congress. Today, let’s consider [...]

The following are graphs showing the frequency distribution of bill cosponsorship in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate as of February 13, 2009. Cosponsorship is the signing of a member of Congress’ name to a bill, an act that formally indicates support for the bill. The x-axis in each graph represents [...]

We have added a new feature to That’s My Congress: House and Senate scorecards for progressive legislative action in the 111th Congress. These scorecards are based on patterns of cosponsorship and roll-call voting behavior by representatives and senators, include contact information to help you get in touch with your members of Congress, and will be [...]