http://www.govtrack.us/blog The GovTrack blog includes site news and occasional analysis of U.S. legislation. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:02:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As the northeast gets blasted with snow --- here in Philadelphia we're on our third storm in two weeks --- I've got a few new updates for GovTrack. Last month GovTrack Insider launched and it's now getting integrated with GovTrack. The new site has reporting on what congressional committees are meeting ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2010/02/10/winter-weather-updates/ This week we had a technical glitch that caused every bill to show up with no cosponsors. This should now be corrected. As you may know, GovTrack derives its information from THOMAS, the website of the Library of Congress. Unfortunately, the Library of Congress does not publish legislative information in a ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2010/01/08/cosponsors-disappeared-theyre-back-now/ Mogy asks: How many bills have not been signed into law after passage in the House and the Senate? Instead of just giving a number, let me break down the state of every bill proposed in Congress in 2009. As you may know, Congress operates on two-year cycles and bills don't carry ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2010/01/03/kill-bill-bills-not-enacted-after-passage-by-congress/ By Jason K. Chen, Carrots & Sticks Project Climate Intern cross-posted on the Carrots and Sticks Blog Two bills were discussed in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on December 15th, S. 2052 (Nuclear Energy Research Initiative Improvement Act of 2009, M. Udall) and S. 2812 (Nuclear Power 2021 Act, ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/12/20/recent-hearing-on-nuclear-energy-legislation/ Here's an update to what's new on GovTrack over the last few months. You'll now notice little buttons throughout the site that let you add or remove trackers when you see lists of bills, rather than having to click through to the individual bills. The bill search page now lets you search ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/12/08/whats-new-to-govtrack-this-fall/ I mentioned last post that Sunlight Foundation extracted some statistics out of the House's recently released electronic 3,300-page report on disbursements. Their statistics showed a wide range of salaries for the different types of staff jobs in Congress. I did some further analysis on whether staff salaries are correlated with ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/12/04/congressional-staff-salary-analysis/ This week the House posted for the first time an electronic version of their master expense report. The report details the pay of everyone employed by Congress, from the Members of Congress to their staff, and other staff in Congress. The folks over at Sunlight Foundation have extracted some statistics out ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/12/02/congressional-staff-salaries/ By Jason K. Chen, Carrots & Sticks Project Climate Intern cross-posted on the Carrots and Sticks Blog Hearing: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, International Aspects of Global Climate Change, 11/17/09 After listening to the Senate hearing about the global impacts of climate change, I felt that the general message of all the ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/11/26/review-of-two-recent-senate-energyclimate-hearings/ Today's question comes from Erika M: I see yea, nay, no, aye as the way congressmen voted.  What does aye mean? Housefly: An Everyday Monster ipod Ah parliamentary procedure. There's no meaningful difference between Yea and Aye, and Nay and No. They both mean "I vote in favor" or "I vote against". The ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/11/18/aye-versus-yea-whats-the-difference/ Visitor WB asks: I understand there are different Bills passed by congress regularly. Some with "H.R.", "S", H. Res" and other variations. My questions is this: What are the types of Bills and what does each designations stand for? Where is each Bill valid? Who is subject to that ... http://www.govtrack.us/blog/2009/11/11/what-are-the-different-types-of-bills/