Vital Statistics on Congress: 30+ years of nonpartisan data now online

[Tracy Viselli]

Hello Gov 2.0/Transparency/Civic Hacker Friends:

Vital Statistics on Congress, the go-to-guide for impartial data on Congress and its members for more than 30 years, has just been released online for the first time so that anyone can access the data. 

See Vital Stats here: http://www.brookings.edu/VitalStats   (don't miss the video!)

Vital Stats includes data on the election and composition of Congressional membership as well as its formal procedure, such as the use of the filibuster, informal norms, party structure and staff. This dataset also documents the increasing polarization of Congress and the demographics of those who serve in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Submit your Vital Stats: if you use the data to create a mashup, data visualization, etc., Tom Mann may feature it on the Brookings.edu website: http://connect.brookings.edu/vitalstats

Vital Stats is a joint effort by Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Tom Mann of Brookings, in collaboration with Michael Malbin of the Campaign Finance Institute

Enjoy!

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Yours, Tracy Viselli

Website:  http://www.brookings.edu
Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/TracyViselli