May 22, 2023

Developments from the Congressional Data Task Force Meeting on March 14, 2023

The Congressional Data Task Force convened on March 14, 2023, to discuss a range of topics related to the use and management of data within the legislative branch. The meeting, which included representatives from various government offices and civil society organizations, highlighted several new and interesting developments. Go here for video and slides from the presentations.

Among the highlights:

  • Implementation of the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act is due by the end of the year
  • The Library of Congress is planning to update/release an API for committee meetings, hearings, and committee prints by the end of 2022
  • The House Statements of Disbursements will soon be published as CSV with a number of new identifiers
  • The House Digital Service is planning for the upcoming Congressional Hackathon
  • The Senate is continuing to make progress on the availability of its video
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April 26, 2023

Congressional Data Task Force Meeting Set For June 22, 2023

The next Congressional Data Task Force Meeting is set for June 22, 2023 from 2:00 – 4:00 pm EST.

The meeting will take place in hybrid format. You must register online here, at which point you’ll be prompted to indicate whether you want to attend virtually or in person. If you attend in-person, the meeting will take place in the House Longworth Building, room B-248/B-249.

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February 20, 2023

Recap: Congressional Data Task Force December 2022 Meeting

The newly renamed Congressional Data Task Force met virtually on December 13, 2022. Resources on the event, including a video of the proceedings, slides from the clerk and slides from GPO, are available on the Innovation Hub here.

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February 14, 2023

Congressional Data Task Force Meeting Announced for March 14, 2023

The next Congressional Data Task Force Meeting is scheduled for 2-4PM EST on Tuesday, March 14, 2023.

To register, use the following link: https://ushr.webex.com/weblink/register/r10370082ab6d3795e3bd3a105f7c717d.

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September 30, 2022

Recap of the September 2022 Congressional Data Task Force Meeting

The Congressional Data Task Force provided a series of legislative branch technology updates at its third quarter meeting on September 29, 2022, including a CAO presentation on adding metadata to Statements of Disbursement, a recap of the Library of Congress Virtual Public Forum, updates on the comparative print project and E-Hopper, updates on how the Congress.gov API beta is handling committee codes, and more. 

We have a full report below on what happened at the two-hour meeting below, and here are some highlights:

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September 13, 2022

Save the Dates: Congressional Data Task Force Meetings Set for End of 2022

The Congressional Data Task Force announced the dates of its third and fourth quarter public meetings.

The CDTF will hold its Q3 public meeting from 2-4pm ET on Thursday September 29. In the future, you can follow this link to register online.

The CDTF will hold its Q4 public meeting from 2-4 PM ET on Thursday, December 13. In the future, you can follow this link to register online.

Catch up with this recap from the June meeting.

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September 8, 2022

Library of Congress Launches Congress.gov API

On September 6th, the Library of Congress announced it launched a beta version of its Congress.gov API. While APIs for legislative data aren’t new for the Legislative branch — see, for example, the Government Publishing Office’s API — this is a pretty big deal. For the reason why, it’s helpful to know a little history.

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June 22, 2022

The Congressional Data Task Force Continues Efforts to Modernize Congressional Tech, Including Itself

The Congressional Data Task Force announced significant legislative branch technology modernization efforts at their second quarter meeting on June 21, 2022, starting with a name change from the Bulk Data Task Force in recognition of the expanded scope of the working group as it goes into its second decade of existence.

We have a full report on what happened at the two-hour meeting below, but here are some highlights:

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September 4, 2021

How to Track Legislative Memes

Legislation is how ideas are put into a format that Congress can process and transform into law. Some ideas are introduced again and again, but in different formats or at different times. Some bills in one chamber of Congress may have a nearly identical version introduced in the other. The same bill can be introduced again and again over multiple Congresses until it is enacted into law. Or a group of legislative ideas can be rolled together into a larger legislative package.

I like to think of ideas contained in legislation as legislative memes, which is a powerful way to understand what Congress is doing. We are working on a legislative tool, call BillMap, that allows you to track legislative memes as they move through Congress.

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August 30, 2021

Recap of Bulk Data Task Force Meeting on July 14, 2021

The Bulk Data Task Force met on July 14, 2021, for the first quarterly meeting since October 2019, which is just before the COVID pandemic began. The virtual meeting included presentations from the House of Representatives, the Library of Congress, GPO, the Senate, and Demand Progress Education Fund. Video from the 2-hour long proceedings are available here and slides from the presentations are available on GPO’s Innovation Hub. More than 100 people were pre-registered to attend the meeting.

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