Contacting your representatives in Congress is one of the best ways to make your voice heard in politics between elections. But because they deal with so many issues and vote on so many bills, it can be hard to know when something important is happening. Countable gives you a road map.
Countable is a free app for iOS and Android, and you can also use it on the web. You’ll need to create an account (or log in with Facebook) to personalize it to your location and your interests.
Find Your Legislators
If you live in a US state, you have three people who represent you in Washington: two senators that represent your state, and one member of the House of Representatives who represents a certain region, called a congressional district, in your state.
That’s why the first step in personalizing Countable is to enter your zip code. If your zip code includes more than one district, it will ask for your full address to figure out where you are.
You can check up on your three lawmakers any time through the app. Countable tells you when their term ends (if it’s 2019, that means they’re up for re-election in 2018) and gives the contact information for their Washington office: phone, fax, and email. This information is easy enough to google, but it’s convenient to have it here. You can even call or email by just tapping a button in the app. There’s also a video button to let you record a short message and send it by email; Countable says they keep track of whether the video actually gets watched.
Best of all, you can keep tabs on how your members of congress are voting and what bills they have sponsored. I can see, for example, that Senator Casey (D-PA) voted no on repealing the EPA’s stream protection rule, but Senator Toomey (R-PA) voted yes.
Sponsoring a bill is a way legislators can show their support for it. It’s also a hint to you that the topic is one the lawmaker cares about (or wants to appear to care about). For example, Senator Toomey is sponsoring a bill on sanctuary cities that has not yet come up for a vote.
Indicate Your Interests
Another step in setting up an account at Countable is to pick your interests from a (long) list. For example, I checked the boxes for women’s health, voting rights, science and technology, and several more. Then, as you’re using the app, you can tap the “issues” button to see the latest bills on that topic. For example, under women’s health, there is a bill about funding abortion providers and one about speeding up FDA review of over-the-counter birth control.
This is where Countable beats other websites like govtrack.us that simply track legislation. It helps you find the bills you might care about, so you can contact your members of Congress before that bill comes up for a vote. That said, many bills never come up for a vote; here are some tips on how to figure out which ones are worth taking the time to call about.
Read Up on Pending Bills
Countable always gives a quick description of each bill and then asks you for a yea or nay—but there’s more.
You can read opinions from other Countable users, about why they “voted” the way they did. This is a suprisingly good way of getting at why people might support or oppose the bill. It’s especially helpful when you see a bill that looks like it’s obviously a good thing. You wonder what’s the catch? And somebody, helpfully, is right there pointing out how they see it.
Obviously, a few comments aren’t the whole story. So Countable has a summary of the bill under “What Is It?” that not only explains what the bill says, but gives some context on where it comes from and why it’s up for a vote. For example, the page on the stream protection rule repeal notes that the rule was finalized under the Obama administration and that rules like this can be overturned within 60 days under the Congressional Review Act.
The Countable page also includes some other handy information that can help you understand a bill:
Its cost, if a cost estimate is avalable.
Links to press releases and news stories about it
Who sponsored it
The bill’s official title and number, and (in the web version) a link to the full text of the bill.
You can also see where the bill stands in the legislative process. Remember, a bill has to be passed in committees and then the full House or Senate before going to the other house, and then to the President. So if a bill has passed the House and is on its way to the Senate, that’s your cue to call your senators about it.
Use Countable As Your Road Map, But Don’t Stop There
Countable is great for tracking bills and lawmakers at the federal level, but it doesn’t include what’s going on at the state or local level.
To keep an eye on your state’s legislation, you’ll need to dig deeper. Votespotter (web/iOS/Android) can let you know how your state representatives voted, but that information comes after the fact; it won’t let you know about upcoming bills.
Your state legislature should have a website that publishes information about upcoming bills, but we don’t know of any apps that do a great job of sorting through and personalizing that information at the state level. This is where it helps to find the right groups and publications at a local level. Your city’s newspaper may help, for example. Many advocacy groups do a good job of watching for both federal and state legislation on their topic, so joining such a group, or following their social media, can keep you in the loop.