Every year Congress determines exactly how much money will be made available to the Legislative Branch and the purpose for which it can be spent. The Legislative Branch Appropriations bills directs congressional spending, line-item by line-item — but, alas, the instructions are published as prose, can run for dozens of pages, and it is difficult […]
For the week ending January 16, 2020, there were 10 Capitol Police incidents reported; 156 individuals arrested. There were 4 traffic related incidents, all involving invalid permit arrests. 147 individuals were also arrested for unlawful demonstration activities on the Rotunda steps of the Capitol Building on Friday, January 10th at 12:55pm. These arrests included actors […]
For the week ending January 09, 2020, there were 8 Capitol Police incidents reported; 47 individuals arrested. There were 4 traffic related incidents, including 2 DUI arrests and 2 invalid permits. 40 individuals were also arrested for obstructing the flow of traffic near the Capitol Building at the intersection of First and East Capitol Streets, […]
For the week ending December 19, 2019, there were 11 Capitol Police incidents reported; 36 individuals arrested. There were 4 traffic related incidents, 2 drug related arrests, and 2 separate cases of assault of a police officer. 26 individuals were also arrested for disruption in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday, December 13th. See how this […]
Of the $4.7 trillion proposed federal budget for FY 2020, $1.4 trillion is discretionary spending, that is,optional spending made through appropriations bills. Before Congress can spend that money, it is divided into 12 slices—one for each of the 12 appropriations subcommittees. These slices are called 302(b) allocations. Lawmakers are supposed to agree on 302(b) numbers […]
For the week ending December 12, 2019, there were 11 Capitol Police incidents reported; 12 individuals arrested. The incidents were primarily traffic related, with five consisting of invalid permits and four DUIs. One protester was arrested for disrupting the impeachment inquiry on Monday, December 9th at 9:23am in 1100 Longworth. Here’s how this week’s activity […]
For the week ending December 5, 2019, there were six Capitol Police incidents reported; six individuals arrested. The incidents were primarily traffic related. Scroll down to see how this week’s activity compares to overall trends for the last year or so.
We are resuming our weekly updates on U.S. Capitol Police activity, which were previously embedded in our weekly newsletter the First Branch Forecast. For the week ending on November 21, 2019, there were 13 incidents reported with a total of 56 individuals arrested. Noteworthy incidents included an individual attempting to bring an unregistered firearm and […]
Last week internal and external Congressional stakeholders came together for the seventh annual Legislative Data and Transparency Conference. We’ve recapped them all. The bipartisan conference was incredibly well run, and did a fantastic job convening internal and external congressional groups to promote engaging and well-executed events (detailed in the image below). You can check out […]
The Bulk Data Task Force (BDTF) is essentially the justice league of legislative data. The task force convenes each quarter, bringing together the people in charge of managing Legislative Branch data—like the House Clerk, Secretary of the Senate, GPO, and Library of Congress—as well as outside stakeholders. Together the group works to make legislative data […]
The seventh annual Legislative Data and Transparency Conference has been announced! On Thursday October 17th, agencies, data users, and transparency advocates will come together to discuss Congress’s efforts to make legislative information available to the public as data. The conference covers what’s working well, what’s not, and provides an opportunity to hear from and meet […]
TRENDS IN SENATE COMMITTEE FUNDING How do Senate committees get their funding and how has funding changed over the last 25 years? We crunched the numbers for you and here are the highlights: Senate Committee spending is at an 18 year low It’s good to be an appropriator; the committee gets the lion’s share of […]