The tru­ism goes that laws and sausages are the two things you don’t want to see being made. Nev­er­the­less, if more of us paid atten­tion to what our con­gres­sion­al rep­re­sen­ta­tives are real­ly up to (and let them know when they screw up), we’d prob­a­bly be a lit­tle hap­pi­er with how the sys­tem works over­all. Two thirds of Amer­i­cans think we’re on the wrong track (if recent polls are to be believed), and with the pres­i­den­tial elec­tions com­ing up there’s no bet­ter time to start pay­ing atten­tion.

All that’s a long run-up to men­tion­ing a new web­site ini­tia­tive called Open Con­gress designed to help the aver­age cit­i­zen fig­ure out what the heck is going on in Wash­ing­ton. Track rep­re­sen­ta­tives and bills that you’re inter­est­ed in; inter­act with oth­er users who share your con­cerns; sort through data by issue or indus­try. It just got a lit­tle eas­i­er to make your vote count.