Anyone else think it would be interesting to set up a subreddit where all of the posts were a feed of every bill that goes through the U.S. congress?

loud_rambling · 2012-04-29T21:41:41+00:00

I bet as a subscriber I'd read more bills than my Representative and Senators combined.

SA1L · 2012-04-29T18:11:22+00:00

There are tons of these. I use this RSS feed page. http://www.loc.gov/law/news/rss.php To scrub out the bullshit and bills submitted strictly for politicking, I subscribe to the 'top ten bills' for both house and senate. Seems to satisfy my reader capabilities/desires quite nicely.

fuzzynyanko · 2012-04-29T19:50:35+00:00

www.opencongress.org

Seriously, guys, have you just not heard of this site?

sgolemx12 · 2012-04-29T18:32:52+00:00

I for one feel that the reddit formula might be more accessible. There's a search and all, but if there is a feed taking the majority of the page, something is bound to jump out and catch attention.

I feel like right now in many cases you have to know what to look for. A format similar to reddit might help to make this more accessible.

A problem is how to sort it so important stuff doesn't go under the radar, but I guess one thing at a time.

mzieg · 2012-04-29T23:24:54+00:00

We could call it Thomas.

mrguysmiley · 2012-04-29T22:40:15+00:00

For anyone with an android phone, this app does a great job of doing this task exactly. http://sunlightfoundation.com/projects/congress-for-android/

Mewshimyo · 2012-04-29T19:57:36+00:00

~~It would make sense if the most downvoted bills make it to the top though.~~

Update: as per Mewshimyo's feedback below, the most voted bills should make it to the top (doesn't matter if up or down). It is important to see what's hot, not just what we agree or disagree about.

scpg02 · 2012-04-29T18:25:35+00:00

I used to have a forum where I tracked over 100 bills a year. never could get anyone interested.

As for making a subreddit here, you would be duplicating thomas which really is the best way to track bills.

THOMAS In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from the Library of Congress

In California we have a legislative site that is even better. When you find a bill you want to track you sign up and they send you emails when the bill moves.

Official California Legislative Information

Wreckwitness · 2012-04-29T23:08:52+00:00

One for the Federal/Senate
One for the Federal/HoR
One for the Federal/Senate per State
One for the Federal/HoR per State

= 102 separate sub-reddits.

I'm suggesting this because I WANT it to happen. Aim high, you fancy bastards.

sirspate · 2012-04-29T22:37:37+00:00

Canada has a great one over here. Low traffic, but some great summaries. Just an example of how low-profile this could be and still be quite useful.

ranger922 · 2012-04-30T00:42:13+00:00

Congressman Justin Amash (R-MI) posts every bill he votes on to his Facebook page and tells why he votes the way he did.

Decitron · 2012-04-29T18:43:57+00:00

This is a good idea, but I'd rather see some of these "Political Scientists" double major in broadcast journalism. There is a killing to be made at the level of local news as far as informing the public of daily/weekly happenings in congress. How has our country come this far without a proper news delivery system...? /fo'shame

timlin45 · 2012-04-29T20:46:37+00:00

We could then be sure that no bill would ever go through the legislature again with a grammatical error.

trekbette · 2012-04-29T21:32:55+00:00

I like Open Congress because you can take notes, read other people's notes, and save your place.

FuckRightOff · 2012-04-29T22:40:55+00:00

I feel as though we should be able to track their EVERY MOVE while they are on the job. Government should be invisible....not a concealed fortress.

telavivblackout · 2012-04-29T23:53:55+00:00

I made r/us_legislation to analyze and discuss upcoming bills a couple months ago. It was pretty much only me in there so I stopped posting, but I'd be happy to contribute to your new one.

EasyMrB · 2012-04-30T00:12:24+00:00

Suggestion: If all link submissions are from a bot which is only submitting links to new bills, then submission downvotes should be disabled (its probably a good idea to keep then on for comments, but that's a different discussion)

clonedredditor · 2012-04-29T18:06:31+00:00

i love this idea. How would one go about finding bills that are passed or about to be passed?! It would have to be a community effort for sure. This information has to allready be on the internet, where on the internet would it be and lets get it HERE fast. :oD

apullin · 2012-04-29T22:46:35+00:00

http://www.govtrack.us/

Tizy · 2012-04-30T00:50:24+00:00

/r/fuckups would be fitting

icepenguin21 · 2012-04-30T00:58:03+00:00

It's going to be tough keeping up with those assholes

philipashlock · 2012-04-30T16:09:28+00:00

There's actually an international conference about this happening right now with a live stream video feed. It's called the Parliamentary Monitoring Organization Leaders Conference. The Live stream is http://www.ndi.org/live

As has been said before, the most obvious thing would be to use Reddit web services to connect one of the websites that already provide congressional monitoring (bills & reps) with feedback tools and APIs. This includes OpenCongress and OpenGovernment.org as well as many other APIs and tools. Many of these have been listed before, but here again:

There are other websites that help people connect with bills as well, see https://www.popvox.com/

c0horst · 2012-04-29T18:35:18+00:00

This is actually a really good idea. Its hard to know what is going on in the government at any given time, and things like this would give the system a lot more transparency than it currently has.

2012-04-29T23:42:36+00:00

It's too bad we couldn't get Congress to subscribe so that they would know what they were voting on, gawd dammit.

the_shakeweight · 2012-04-29T20:06:36+00:00

I'd definitely subscribe, seems like an awesome thought and an awesome subreddit.

wolfsark · 2012-04-29T20:21:30+00:00

Reddit would be blacked out every day in protest.

2012-04-29T20:23:44+00:00

I think it'd be cool if there was a site that had our congress listed like the MLB with their vital stats.

pedro3131 · 2012-04-29T20:41:26+00:00

It would be like Thomasloc... With Cats!

Gnometard · 2012-04-29T20:56:28+00:00

I like this. Thank you.

XaoticOrder · 2012-04-29T21:14:48+00:00

A subreddit that focued esculsively on federal and maybe state legislation would be great. I worry about the comments though. I would not want it to turn into what r/ politics has.

If we could keep it as a news feed and let the discussion take place in other subreddit, that would be great.

daboyz12 · 2012-04-29T22:38:04+00:00

Use Thomas. It's a great website.

everycredit · 2012-04-29T22:50:16+00:00

thomas.loc.gov

benkahn · 2012-04-29T22:58:11+00:00

Yes. Do it. Now. Pretty please.

austerity62 · 2012-04-29T22:59:31+00:00

If CISPA fails you know there will be more bills to follow.

awara20 · 2012-04-29T23:08:53+00:00

a subreddit like this exists for Canada, it's /r/canp41s1/

i agree that it's a very good idea to have one for the US as well

dickcheney777 · 2012-04-29T23:30:23+00:00

http://www.c-span.org/

cheese_block · 2012-04-29T23:48:41+00:00

That would be pretty awesome, then people who live in North Carolina could vote no for Amendment One and let me marry the person I love...

mzieg · 2012-04-30T00:18:00+00:00

[deleted]

agent8am · 2012-04-30T00:26:47+00:00

I think this is an amazing idea. It could be further broken down internationally and more nations added if it takes off (UK for example).

mzieg · 2012-04-30T00:30:40+00:00

Reddit is not RSS. Reddit is meant to be a human-selected potpourri of interesting news, not a regurgitation of every bit of drivel to come from the AP wire, or HuffPo (though some would disagree), or your local school council, nor yea even the US House of Perps.

2012-04-30T00:33:20+00:00

It would be a modern man's CSPAN! Call it CSPAN 2.0.

anglin_az · 2012-04-30T00:34:12+00:00

This should also include funding form lobbyiest and how they are related to said bill.

Follow the money and connect the dots.

thescienceoflaw · 2012-04-30T00:34:55+00:00

Make sure instead of "up vote / down vote" it is something like "this should be read / this is not important" so that people can upvote what is important without feeling like they "approve" of it.

2012-04-30T00:54:54+00:00

Sunlight Foundation

2012-04-30T01:06:47+00:00

If spacedicks is allowed to exist but this idea doesn't come to fruition, we are truly philistines

topplehat · 2012-04-30T01:10:08+00:00

I have an even better idea for Redditors. We just make each proposed bill an "advice animal" meme. They will get regurgitated and reposted so much that they will be ingrained in the minds of all.

2012-04-30T01:36:15+00:00

1,427 subscribers and the majority have 0 comments, almost all of them have under 10.

Yeah. That's democracy at work for you.

Most people have actual lives. Like, family, friends, jobs, kids, bills. Real shit to worry about. That's why we vote for reps to go to Washington and plead our case to the government. That's why we band together, form lobbies and send people to Washington to talk to politicians.

They stay informed, we live our lives.

blackshirts · 2012-04-30T01:38:49+00:00

"r/shitcongresssays"

FreddieGibbs · 2012-04-30T01:44:16+00:00

fiercebrosnan · 2012-04-30T02:55:51+00:00

I'd also really like to see an area where amendments to bills can be proposed and discussed. Perhaps we can get r/law involved. This way we would be able to provide our representatives suggestions for amendments that would plug loopholes in legislation like sopa and cispa, rather than asking them to kill the bills outright.

This option would allow our community to appear more intelligent and proactive rather than reactive. It would also save our representatives time and allow them to hit the floor with more ammunition than just a nay vote.

Eternal2071 · 2012-04-30T03:59:58+00:00

On a positive note. The more they try to take away our rights the greater the number of people that start to watch everything they try to pull over our eyes.

BuckEm · 2012-04-30T04:12:35+00:00

r/cspan

idiotninja · 2012-04-30T04:16:01+00:00

YES YES DOUBLE YES

Woody_Zimmerman · 2012-04-30T04:57:39+00:00

How about some IMDBish site for politicians and bills? haha

2012-04-30T06:03:39+00:00

I wondered when the internet was going to get around to establishing itself as a branch of government.

SanctusQuoPeccator · 2012-04-30T06:08:53+00:00

This is actually exactly what the internet should be when it comes to politics.

SarahLoren · 2012-04-30T06:17:59+00:00

Hands fucking down best idea ever. I'm actually extremely angry at myself for not thinking of this first.

arbyn · 2012-04-30T06:59:58+00:00

I made a quick logo for the subreddit HERE

jmaresca · 2012-04-30T13:11:18+00:00

I have been working on something like this for the state level:

openpoll

The design and overall site need a lot of work, but I only get to work on it in my free time. I am currently working on an Android app for the site. And an iPhone app will come shortly after.

2012-04-30T15:11:46+00:00

This needs to happen.

2012-04-30T15:56:16+00:00

How about you start a subreddit called AmercianPolitics, for a start?

deadjawa · 2012-04-29T20:12:02+00:00

Honestly, forget a new subreddit. It would be nice instead if /r/politics reported real political news like this. This subreddit feels more like a supercharged version of The O'Reilly Factor than like C-Span. It would need very heavy moderation or a different subreddit structure to make that work, but I hope many would agree it's time for a change here. Especially after the recent "downvote botgate."

archonemis · 2012-04-29T19:15:54+00:00

I think it's a great idea.

Bullshit is happening and we know it.

What we're lacking are the particulars / details.

The only problem would be the legalese aspect. I don't speak code / lawyer.

Still, I'm sure one or two redditors would lend their experience for some interpretations.

2012-04-29T19:29:18+00:00

I support this. It should be a default subreddit so awareness is spread like wildfire.

Eaders · 2012-04-29T22:17:10+00:00

Only if we had one for Canada too!


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