Overview
Congress.org states on its website that it is a "nonpartisan news and information website dedicated to encouraging civic participation". It was started by Capitol Advantage, a Virginia firm that provides software and information to clients who wish to influence public policy. [3] Its software products Capwiz and Knowledgis are described by Washington Technology as "online software and services for lobbyists". [4]
In 2008, the Roll Call Group bought Capitol Advantage. [5]
The company, now known as the CQ-Roll Call Group, [6] relaunched the website in 2009 with a focus on advocacy issues and general interest news on Congress. [7]
The site features reporting on grassroots activism and Congressional advocacy groups by Ambreen Ali. [8] It also runs online videos featuring veteran Washington reporter Craig Crawford. [9]
The site has sponsorship from the American Beverage Association, whose members include The Coca-Cola Company, Dr Pepper, Gillette, Kraft Foods, Nestlé and PepsiCo, among others. [10]
In politics, lobbying, persuasion, or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, meaning a voter or bloc of voters within their electoral district; they may engage in lobbying as a business. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation, regulation, or other government decisions, actions, or policies on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job. Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.
Lester Lawrence Lessig III is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Lessig was a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, but withdrew before the primaries.
Donald Lee Nickles is an American politician and lobbyist who was a Republican United States Senator from Oklahoma from 1981 until 2005. He was considered both a fiscal and social conservative. After retiring from the Senate as the longest serving senator from Oklahoma (1981–2005) up until that point, he founded the Nickles Group, a lobbying firm.
Lawrence Edwin Craig is a retired American politician from the state of Idaho. He served 18 years as a Republican in the United States Senate (1991–2009), preceded by 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Idaho's 1st District (1981–91). His 28 years in Congress rank as the second-longest in Idaho history, trailing only William Borah, who served over 32 years in the Senate. In addition to serving in Congress, Craig has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association since 1983. Craig was selected for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame in 2007.
William Marshall Thomas is an American politician. He was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 2007, finishing his tenure representing California's 22nd congressional district and as the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Internet activism, also known as web activism, online activism, digital campaigning, digital activism, online organizing, electronic advocacy, e-campaigning, and e-activism, is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular information to large and specific audiences as well as coordination. Internet technologies are used for cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying, and organizing. A digital activism campaign is "an organized public effort, making collective claims on a target authority, in which civic initiators or supporters use digital media." Research has started to address specifically how activist/advocacy groups in the U.S. and Canada are using social media to achieve digital activism objectives.
Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined with Roll Call to form CQ Roll Call in 2009; CQ ceased to exist as a separate entity, and in July 2018, a deal was announced for the company to be acquired by FiscalNote.
Roll Call is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of congressional elections across the country.
The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, agnostics, and other nontheistic Americans."
Craig Crawford is an American writer and television political commentator based in Washington, D.C. Publisher of the news commenting forum, Trail Mix, Crawford was a columnist for Congressional Quarterly, Editor-in-Chief of National Journal's The Hotline, and Washington Bureau Chief for The Orlando Sentinel, and the author of Listen Up Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do, The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World, and Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media.
The Megaphone desktop tool was a Windows "action alert" tool developed by Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) and distributed by World Union of Jewish Students, World Jewish Congress, The Jewish Agency for Israel, World Zionist Organization, StandWithUs, Hasbara fellowships, HonestReporting, and other pro-Israel public relations organizations. The tool was released in July during the 2006 Lebanon War. By June 2011, the tool was no longer available through the GIYUS website. An RSS newsfeed is available.
The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States Congress, the executive branch, and in state and local governments. The foundation's primary focus was the role of money in politics. The organization sought to increase campaign finance regulations and disclosure requirements. The Sunlight Foundation ceased operations in September 2020.
The Arab lobby in the United States is a collection of formal and informal groups and professional lobbyists paid directly by Arab governments or Arab citizens in the United States that lobby the public and government of the United States on behalf of Arab interests and/or on behalf of Arab American rights in the United States.
Federal News Service (FNS) is a Washington, D.C.–based company providing transcription services. FNS produces on-demand verbatim transcripts of newsworthy events in DC for its clients. FNS "is one of the chief sources of transcripts from presidential appearances and Capitol Hill events".
Capitol Advantage is a Fairfax, VA based technology company. Roll Call acquired Capitol Advantage for $43 million in August 2008.
The Community Alliance For the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) is an advocacy group for people enrolled in residential treatment programs for at-risk teenagers. The group's mission includes advocating for access to advocates, due process, alternatives to aversive behavioral interventions, and alternatives to restraints and seclusion for young people in treatment programs. They have also called for the routine reporting of abuse in residential treatment programs, as well as federal government oversight and regulation of residential treatment programs.
The 2010 congressional elections in Virginia were held November 2, 2010, to determine who will represent the state of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected served in the 112th Congress from January 2011 until January 2013.
Internet activism and, specifically, social networking has been instrumental in organizing many of the 2009 Iranian election protests. Online sites have been uploading amateur pictures and video, and Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have been places for protesters to gather and exchange information. Although some scholars in the West stress that Twitter has been used to organize protests, Iranian scholars argue that Twitter was hardly used by Iranian citizens in the midst of the 2009 protests.
William Steve Southerland II is an American lobbyist and former Republican Party politician who served as the U.S. Representative for Florida's 2nd congressional district from 2011 to 2015. The district includes most of the eastern Florida Panhandle, from Panama City to the state capital, Tallahassee. He was narrowly defeated for re-election in 2014 by Democrat Gwen Graham, becoming one of only two incumbent House Republicans to lose a general election that year, along with Lee Terry of Nebraska.
