The POPVOX Blog

Articles From July 2011

1. Fast Company--How You Can Help Netflix Integrate With Facebook In The U.S.

   by annalee on July 28, 2011

   How You Can Help Netflix Integrate With Facebook In The U.S. in Fast Company

2. Tech President--How To Reach Your Member of Congress Today, Online or Off

   by annalee on July 26, 2011

   How To Reach Your Member of Congress Today, Online or Off in Tech President

3. The House Plan is a Senate Bill (What??)

   by marci on July 26, 2011

   The House Republican " Budget Control Act of 2011 " (the Boehner Plan) was released around midnight by the House Rules Committee (Rules Committee notice here ).

   Those who took a look would have noticed immediately that it is not a new bill. Rather, it is an "amendment in the nature of a substitute" to S. 627 , the Faster FOIA Act of 2011, which passed the Senate on May 26. Boehner's amendment takes this bill that passed the Senate, strikes all of the language of S. 627 after the "enacting clause" ( Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled) and inserts the new language of the "Budget Control Act of 2011".  In this way, S. 627 will be the "vehicle" for the Boehner plan.

   But why?

   The reasons are usually procedural and probably only a Parliamentarian could explain. My guess is that it has something to do with Senate calendar rules and allows the revised bill to be taken up more quickly in the Senate if it passes the House.  It's important to note that while it is confusing, it is not nefarious.  In this case, the decision probably had a lot to do with the looming default deadline.

   It's not that rare

   The " amendment in the nature of a substitute " is not actually that rare.  Committee chairmen frequently use this tactic in committee mark-ups to introduce a revised bill that incorporates (usually) technical or (sometimes) substantive changes that have come up in the time between bill introduction and markup.

   Even to replace an entire bill passed by another chamber?

   I'm not sure of the statistics on how often it happens. That would be an interesting study.  But again, it's more often than you might think.  I am most familiar with is the opposite, where the Senate amends a House bill in order to avoid a "blue-slip" problem, which I blogged here .  (Picking up a House vehicle allows the Senate to get around the Article 1 , Section 7 clause in the Constitution, which requires that all revenue-raising measures be initiated by the House.)

   How do I weigh in on POPVOX?

   We're working on it. Our system mirrors the Congressional bills with conventional numbers, so it is a technical challenge... stay tuned.

4. PRESS RELEASE: POPVOX Announces Integration With Salsa Labs Platform

   by annalee on July 22, 2011

   July 22, 2011, WASHINGTON, DC― POPVOX, the award-winning online platform that connects citizens with Congress, today announced seamless integration with the SALSA LABS organizing platform used by over 2,000 nonprofits, labor unions, and campaigns.

   Laura Byrd, Director of Marketing at Salsa Labs, said, “So many of our clients already use Salsa for their advocacy efforts, so we are excited to provide our clients with the new POPVOX tool that organizers can take advantage of within the structure of their existing Salsa dashboard.”

   The integration allows Salsa clients to embed a POPVOX “Write Congress” widget on their website to help their members weigh in on pending legislation. Since the tool is powered by POPVOX, constituent information is verified for Congressional offices, messages are aggregated publicly on the POPVOX.com website and individuals can track the delivery of their message to their legislators’ offices.

   “Integrating with customer relationship management and organizing platforms will make it even easier for organizations to add POPVOX to their arsenal of advocacy tools,” said Rachna Choudhry, Chief Marketing Officer of POPVOX. “We're fortunate to have an innovative partner in Salsa Labs to launch the integrated service.”

   For more information on POPVOX for organizations, visit: www.popvox.com/organization

   About POPVOX

   POPVOX is a neutral, nonpartisan advocacy platform that meshes legislative data with individuals’ personal stories and sentiment. POPVOX delivers public input to Congress in a format tailored to actionable policy decisions and empowers users to leverage their expertise and numbers. POPVOX provides a legislative dashboard for Congress and government affairs professionals with bill status information, customized tracking, bill-specific advocacy information, and real-time constituent sentiment and comments. For more information, visit: www.popvox.com

   About SALSA LABS

   Salsa Labs is the creator of the leading online platform for organizing and engaging people. In one easy-to-use, integrated, and flexible platform, groups of all sizes can manage their supporters, communicate, fundraise, advocate, host events, and more. Organizations can create their own unique recipe for organizing by choosing from the dozens of available software tools as well as by plugging in dozens of other applications produced by 3rd parties in the Salsa Market. Salsa’s software and services suite currently supports over 2,000 user groups’ relationships with over 40 million supporters, members, donors, activists, and fans all around the world.

5. The Hill 101: Discharge Petition

   by marci on July 18, 2011

   Bill status: stuck in committee

   If you have paid attention to the "bill status" tab on POPVOX bills pages, you know that many have the same not-very-encouraging status:

   This bill or resolution was assigned to a congressional committee on [x date] which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole. The majority of bills never make it past this point.

   That underlined portion was coined by our CTO Josh Tauberer years ago as he was building GovTrack .  Now, Josh is unquestionably a realist.  For example, our internal POPVOX message delivery system reports back "Not a failure!" when a message gets delivered to a Congressional office.  (A more optimistic person might call that "Success!", but Josh is much more cautious.)  In the case of bills making it through once referred to committee, however, I'm with Josh... and Bill:

   "I might die in committee..."

   One way out

   

   BUT, if you know your Elle Woods (that's " Legally Blonde, Part 2: Red, White & Blonde ", to be exact) you know there actually IS one way that a bill can be brought for a vote even if it does not get reported out of committee and is not selected by Leadership: a discharge petition . If at least half of the Members of the House sign to discharge a bill, it is brought to the Floor for a vote.

   Discharge petition filed

   Last week, Congressman Louis Gohmert (R-TX) filed a discharge petition for his bill, HR 1297, the Ensuring Pay for Our Military Act of 2011 . The bill appropriates funds to assure pay for active duty service members in the case of a government shutdown. There is a companion Senate bill, S. 724 , introduced by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison .

   Watch its progress

   Discharge petitions are rare, but even more rare are successful discharge petitions. You can watch the progress on this one on the website of the House Clerk. Currently, the tally stands at 13. Only 212 signatures to go.

   Update: Discharge petition on China currency bill gaining steam

   Reuters is reporting that the discharge petition filed for Representative Sander Levin 's H.R. 639: Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act has 173 of the 218 signatures needed.

6. GovFresh--Social Congress and the 21st century legislator

   by annalee on July 15, 2011

   Social Congress and the 21st century legislator in GovFresh

7. Notes from #SocialCongress

   by marci on July 14, 2011

   Last night, in a start-up-y co-work space in the South-of-Market (SOMA) section of San Francisco, entrepreneurs, advocates, Congressional staffers and some folks who just found the topic interesting came to hear Brad Fitch , President of the Congressional Management Foundation, talk “ #SocialCongress .”  That included how Congress perceives constituent communication: the good, the bad and the somewhat surprising.

   POPVOX Advisor and Gov 2.0 champion, Tim O'Reilly kicked off the event with some perspective.  "It's not just about reaching Congress," he emphasized, "but can we use technology to make Congress smarter?"

   We weren’t able to get it on video so what follows are background notes and takeaways.  Last night was just the beginning of the release of findings on how Congress is using Social Media, so follow @CongressFdn for updates and the release of the full report .

   We at POPVOX are big CMF fans -- we comb their reports, we meet with their staff to bounce new ideas, our co-founder and CTO, Josh Tauberer, participates as an advisor on their efforts to standardize formats for incoming messages to Congress.  CMF studies the space between the information Congress wants to receive and the information constituents want to provide -- and we at POPVOX are working to bridge that divide.

   And we're not the only fans... Brad kicked off the event with this video (proving they have been around for a while.):

   The main focus of the presentation was charts of findings from the most recent CMF Report,  Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill . Social congress slides

   The report reflects the attitudes of Capitol Hill staff surveyed by CMF:

   1. The internet has increased civic participation and lawmaker accountability but has not necessarily led to a more informed constituency. 2. Citizens have more power than they realize. 3. It's not the delivery method, it's the content. 4. Staff have mixed feelings about grassroots advocacy campaigns 5. Social Media is used to gauge opinions and communicate the legislator's positions. We are grateful to Nader Ghaffari and matthew Melmon of ShortForm.com , who hosted the event at SOMA Central and look forward to making more events like this happen. And many thanks to the wonderful tweeters from far and wide ! There was a wonderful feeling of community, and we plan to make this a much more regular occurrence (with video next time!) Please email info@popvox.com if you would like to be notified when the next event is planned.

    

    

8. PRESS RELEASE: Heritage Action Powers Online Advocacy with POPVOX

   by annalee on July 11, 2011

   July 11, 2011, WASHINGTON, DC― HERITAGE ACTION, the sister organization to the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, today launched a campaign to get supporters’ messages to Congress using the powerful POPVOX advocacy tool.

   The mission of Heritage Action is to ensure that Members of Congress hear directly from their constituents, including over 710,000 members of The Heritage Foundation and millions of others around the country who share their conservative vision of America’s future.

   “Ease of communication is essential in today’s fast-paced and high-stakes environment,” Heritage Action's political director Russ Vought said. “We’re excited by the increased usability that POPVOX will bring to our site.”

   The POPVOX Write Congress widget allows individuals to send a custom message to Congress without leaving the Heritage Action website. Since the tool is powered by POPVOX, constituent information is verified for Congressional offices, messages are aggregated publicly on POPVOX.com to show quantified grassroots power and individuals can track delivery of their message to their legislators offices.

   Link to POPVOX widget on the Heritage Action site: http://heritageaction.com/nat-gas-act

   About POPVOX

   POPVOX is a neutral, nonpartisan advocacy platform that meshes legislative data with individuals’ personal stories and sentiment. POPVOX delivers public input to Congress in a format tailored to actionable policy decisions and empowers users to leverage their expertise and numbers. POPVOX provides a legislative dashboard for Congress and government affairs professionals with bill status information, customized tracking, bill-specific advocacy information, and real-time constituent sentiment and comments. For more information, visit: www.popvox.com

   About Heritage Action

   Heritage Action is a grassroots organization that promotes conservative policies in Congress. Their DC-based staff amplifies local activists’ voices, allowing Americans to break through the establishment in Washington, ensuring Members of Congress get the message.

9. 7/13 Event: Social Media & the Legislative Process

   by marci on July 6, 2011

   The POPVOX team is very excited to be hosting a great event with ShortForm :

   Perspectives from Capitol Hill: Social Media & the Legislative Process

   Wednesday, July 13, 2011 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (PT), SOMA Central, 153 Townsend, San Francisco, CA

   With election year looming & social media spurring political change across the globe,

   • What does this mean for our own political process?

   • How can tech companies engage to provide tools for citizens, campaigns and advocacy efforts?

   • How much does the voice of the average citizen actually count in Congress?

   Brad Fitch , President and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation , which produces the authoritative " Communicating with Congress " studies, will discuss the progress and challenges of incorporating new technology into the processes of Congress. He will present the findings of the broadest survey ever taken of Congressional staff on effective communications to Capitol Hill. Fitch will also offer a sneak preview of findings form CMF’s study to be released in late July, “#SocialCongress: Perceptions and Use of Social Media on Capitol Hill.”

   POPVOX advisor and angel Tim O'Reilly will provide introductions and kick off Q&A.

10. Links for What's Happening in Congress

    by marci on July 5, 2011

    Was just asked by a POPVOX reader for some help finding a source for "what's going on in Congress" each week.  We curate a few key bills from the calendar for our Bills in Congress page. (Stay tuned for new developments there.) In the meantime, thought I would share some of my favorite places to go find this info.  Am I missing any good ones?  Send links!

    The Hill's Floor Action Blog ( @FloorAction )  I check this everyday.  It presents the upcoming calendar with backstory from The Hill's reporters - good stuff! CongressMatters - David Waldman ( @KagroX ) explains Congress better and in clearer terms than anyone I know.  The site is associated with the Progressive blog, DailyKos , but content focuses on procedure rather than politics.

    Majority Leader Eric Cantor's ( @GOPLeader )  Weekly Schedule - This is the official source, which Leader Cantor's staff keeps extremely current.

    The " Weekly Whip " from Minority Whip Steny Hoyer ( @WhipHoyer) -- with RSS!

    Senate Democrat ( @SenateDems )  Floor Schedule

    Senate Republican ( @SenateGOPs )   Floor Updates

    UPDATE: From @ATWeber (and how did I miss this one!?!) The THOMAS.gov roundup of calendars is excellent!

    UPDATE2.0: From @DerekWills NYTimes' " Today's Bills " (very nice!)