About OurCongress
Official congressional records, in one place, made easier to follow.
OurCongress is a non-partisan civic transparency platform that brings official congressional records into one place so people can more easily follow what their elected officials are doing, how they are voting, and what legislation is moving through Congress.
Using official public records, clearer explanations, and visible source labeling, the platform helps users review the public record for themselves without political spin, opinion, or unnecessary complexity.
How OurCongress helps you
OurCongress is designed to make congressional activity easier to follow without forcing users to search across multiple government websites or decode legislative jargon on their own.
Follow the public record
Review congressional members, roll call votes, bills, and bill summaries in one place using official public records.
Understand what you are seeing
Clear explanations and source labeling help users understand the record without replacing the official source itself.
Track your elected officials
See what your representatives are doing, how they are voting, and what legislation they sponsor.
Reach out if you choose
Where available, representative contact information is included so users can contact congressional offices directly.
What you can expect here
- • Non-partisan by design.
- • No political interpretation, no opinion, and no spin.
- • Official public records, clearly sourced whenever possible.
- • Read-only public information presented in a simpler format.
- • Explanatory text is used to support understanding, not persuasion.
Coverage and scope
OurCongress is built to support more than one Congress. The platform currently centers the public browsing experience around the 119th Congress and current representation, while historical member and term data is being expanded to support broader multi-Congress exploration.
That means users can expect current-member pages, district lookups, bills, and votes to stay easy to browse today, while historical service history and older congressional coverage continue to improve over time.
As historical browsing tools are added, OurCongress will make it easier to answer questions such as who served in a given Congress, who represented a district during an earlier session, and how a member's service changed across time.
About the founder
OurCongress was created by Jacob Byrnes, a first-time app builder who came to this project not as a political insider or software engineer, but as a citizen frustrated by how difficult it is to clearly follow Congress.
Public information exists, but for many people it is scattered, overly technical, and hard to connect to the officials they actually elect. OurCongress was built to change that by organizing official public records into a simpler, more accessible civic tool.
Congress does not belong to political parties, insiders, or the loudest voices online. It belongs to the American people. “We the People” hire our representatives, and citizens should have a clearer way to understand what those representatives do, how they vote, and what legislation they sponsor.
The mission is simple: trust, transparency, and non-partisan access to official records. No political spin. No opinion. No advocacy disguised as information. Just the public record, made easier to follow.
As someone without a traditional background in app development, Jacob set out to build the kind of civic tool an everyday citizen would actually want to use — one grounded in clarity, accountability, and respect.
Project status
OurCongress is under active development. Coverage and features will continue improving as official source availability allows and the platform expands.
Current priorities include strengthening historical member coverage, improving multi-Congress navigation, and keeping current-session browsing simple and reliable.
Sources and methodology
OurCongress is built from official public records, including congressional roll call data, legislative records, and related government source material. Where explanatory text appears, it should be understood as a reading aid, not a replacement for the official source itself.
Core source categories include:
- • House Clerk roll call records
- • Senate roll call records
- • Congress.gov legislative records
- • GovInfo bulk legislative data
Start exploring
Review members, votes, and legislation using official records organized in a simpler, more accessible format.