Rep. John Conyers‘ remarks on July 24, 2009 to the National Press Club concerning investigations of unconstitutional behavior by members of the Bush administration (my transcription of public NPC video): Eric Holder must appoint a special counsel to review the Bush administration abuses of power and misconduct. A criminal probe: he’s got to do that. [...]

It’s been six weeks now since a single member of Congress added his or her cosponsorship to H.R. 104, a bill to create an independent commission to investigate instances of torture and illegal surveillance by the United States government and report to Congress with the results. The momentum for such a commission, long weak, now [...]

This morning That’s My Congress has released a report scoring the legislative performance of members of the LGBT Equality Caucus of the House of Representatives in the 111th Congress. The report takes 12 bills identified by the caucus as a slate of legislation in support of civil rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. [...]

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 [...]

Since its founding in 1991, the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives has been characterized as the most doctrinaire of groups, marching in a unified lockstep. Right-wing authors refer to the Progressive Caucus as “revolutionary,” “fringe left,” “socialist,” “anti-American,” “communist”, and even: Congress’ very own Red Army. They are card-carrying members of the [...]

During congressional campaigns every two years, we often hear candidates, citizens and pundits calling for more “bipartisanship.” David Broder writes his more-bipartisanship-please column every three weeks or so for the Washington Post syndicate, getting freshly paid each time. If the Democrats and the Republicans would only work together, the thinking goes, something might just get [...]

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 [...]

The last thing we need now is to see American families with parents who have lost their jobs have to deal with the vicious attack on the social safety net that Marsha Blackburn would unleash.

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 [...]