WTF Community

Possible addition to WTF?

General Discussion
#1

Hi @matt. Thank you for doing this

Is possible to add a section to the newsletter each day that highlights the daily legislation pushes hidden behind all the crazy headlines?

Maybe something like this, for example(?):

In case you’ve gotten distracted by bump stocks, taking the knee, the Corker tweet storm, the “Who’s the “real” first lady drama”, 45’s new IQ challenge (?!)… Etc., etc., etc.

The following bills have been introduced (as of last week):

  1. HR 861 Terminate the Environmental Protection Agency

  2. HR 610 Vouchers for Public Education

  3. HR 899 Terminate the Department of Education

  4. HJR 69 Repeal Rule Protecting Wildlife

  5. HR 370 Another attempt to Repeal Affordable Care Act

  6. HR 354 Defund Planned Parenthood

  7. HR 785 National Right to Work
    (this one is devastating to the working class and also applies to Union members)

  8. HR 83 Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Bill

  9. HR 147 Criminalizing Abortion (“Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act”)

  10. HR 808 Sanctions against Iran

Please call your Representatives.

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#2

That seems like a whole other thing because WTF: The Newsletter focuses on the WH and Trump’s administration as its primary focus… It seems like this would be great (and incredibly useful) for someone to do in the General Discussion section of the WTF forum though.

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#4

@Sailorgirl773 I like your enthusiasm, you could always start a thread here on the forum about the proposed bills in Congress. I think Matt may have his hands full covering the White House policies and frequent dramas…

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#6

This would be a fantastic resource! Whether it’s here or if someone finds something like it elsewhere, please post about it!

There’s an app called Countable that helps keep up with Congress, but it’s not as neatly organized. It does help one keep tabs on their representative and write emails to them.

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#7

@zilla I love that App. I use it everyday!

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#8

@zilla I love Countable! My Congressman is really great at actually responding in-depth (vs. generic responses) , since it emails your MoC if you leave a comment. My Senators aren’t as quick at responding, but are still do (I’ve many MoCs don’t!).

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#9

Countable is helpful because it presents distilled information simply and also encourages taking action. It’s quick.

5 Calls is meant for taking action and contacting your member of Congress (MOC). It doesn’t list specific bills, but it’s very simple and does show the most notable/important national issues political activists are focusing on at the moment.

For informational research, these 3 resources are great for tracking/searching legislative details and newly introduced bills:

  • GovTrack focuses on federal bills only. They have a weekly list of upcoming bills, “hot” bills of interest, MOC voting records, and bills/meetings by Congressional Committee. There are other interesting features like “prognosis” (indicates the likelihood of a bill being enacted), the ability to compare text of different versions of a bill, and highlights notable votes (like if it’s unusual for a MOC to vote a certain way based on their history, stance, and political party).

  • LegiScan has a database on federal and state bills. They have a trending top 50 list nationally and for each state.

  • Bill Track 50 has a database on federal and state-level legislation too with a “currently trending” section.

Note: LegiScan and BillTrack50 may require free registration to use. Searching and reading full text is free, but be aware saved searches, tracking alerts, etc. require a paid subscription, which I can’t vouch for. I only use these sites on rare occasion to glance at trending state stuff.

For looking up info after a bill has been voted on (i.e., not trending or upcoming bills), aside from GovTrack, sometimes I use these 2 sites for learning more:

  • Ballotpedia is a wiki-style encyclopedia with info on election news, analyses, polls, history, policies, state laws, candidates, influencers/activists/lobbyists, fact-checking, etc… basically anything across the federal, state, and local levels.

  • ProPublica has MOC voting record data like GovTrack. What’s different is a section linking to official Congressional statements issued by their offices (and a cleaner visual layout, in my opinion).

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#10

Hey I don’t know why I’m finally seeing this message, but I’m a big fan, and paying supporting, of WTFJHT and also the founder of BillTrack50. So thanks John for the shout out. I would be perfectly happy to provide a feed of bills introduced in congress every day, and maybe a second feed of bills that had votes, for Matt to share with everyone. I’ll reach out and see if I can make that happen.

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#11
#3

Isn’t the focus on this administration and WTFJHT? Seems like what they are pushing to do is Just has relevant news as the drama and made up crap we get forced into our news cycles. (Not trying to be shitty. Just tired of narcissistic smokescreens while our democracy is being eroded daily).

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#5

This would be great!

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