Chris is gushing over Open Congress, the new congressional tracking project from the fine folks at The Sunlight Foundation and The Participatory Politics Foundation. Some gush, frankly, is warranted. I spend a lot of time tracking Congressional motions and the technology for doing so, as offered by government, is clunky and frustrating. Open Congress, by contrast, is slick and elegant, like a fine dame standing on a patch of ice. Or something. The one thing that neither OC nor THOMAS offers is a powerful ability to sort votes. So when I’m looking at the results of a bill, I’d like to be able to order the votes by party, by alphabet, by state, etc. As of now, it seems to only go alphabetically. It’s still beta though, so there’s time!
Ezra Klein is a former Prospect writer and current editor-in-chief at Vox. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Slate, and The Columbia Journalism Review. He’s been a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, and more. More by Ezra Klein