Public disclosure and openly accessible analysis are incredibly important tools for understanding any government and holding it accountable. The Congressional Record has been hard to analyze for simply because of its length -- tens of thousands of documents a year. We're betting that the tens of thousands of interested citizens out there, open to opportunities to help out (especially in this election year) can make the Congressional Record an open book.

We're one or more concerned individuals, not formally affiliated with any political party or movement, who care about good government and politics and who believe sunshine is a great disinfectant, as the current Republican nominee once said. We're doing this on our personal time and with no expectation of compensation or turning a profit; this is a chance to do some good.

What's in the record for a particular member of Congress will reflect his or her interests -- the issues that he or she has done work on, there should be a lot to dig through. Other areas -- even hot-button subjects -- may not have much. And what's there will be varied -- sometimes we'll find great information -- deep statements of philosophy, political smoking guns, and many richly relevant and informative passages. Sometimes it'll just bemotions to adjourn and clips from stump speeches. We really won't know what's in there until we've looked.

Our blog has a lot more information on the site, what we've been up to, and what you can find here -- check it out!