Committee Newsletters – Keeps Your Repiders Up to Date

Committee News is an online professional web site offering members of Congress, campaign staff, political candidates, and others with up-to-date news on upcoming events. It has evolved as one of the best reliable sites for keeping up with the happenings in Washington, D.C. They publish an annual calendar of legislative activity, along with links to special hearings, individual hearings, and many other important resources. Members and committees can register online through the site, which has password protected user profiles.

The site provides an e-mail newsletter that allows members to sign up for alerts from time to time. Subscribers can then choose which email notifications they would like to receive. This newsletter often includes Capitol Hill highlights, breaking news stories, as well as stories about upcoming legislation. In addition, newsletters are sent out to state and local members. It is available to all members of Congress as well as to candidates running for local office.

Committee News is hosted by Reps. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The site features three archives for members, committees, and candidates. Each archive offers a summary of recent activity, along with links and a brief description. Hover your cursor over the links and descriptions for detailed information on specific subjects, such as new legislation, Supreme Court decisions, proposed amendments, and other items of interest to members.

Registering to be a member of Committee News is free. All you need to do is visit the site, create an account, select a username, and select a password. Your username and password must remain secret, and only you and authorized committee members have access to them. Your password will be sent to you in an encrypted message, so the possibility of someone intercepting it is unlikely. You are also expected to keep your news account updated with any newsworthy items or issues of interest to you and your committee members.

Once you have established an account, you can begin adding news items to your personal news feed. For members, the site provides RSS feeds for many categories, including Government and Politics, Business and Finance, Technology, Sports, and Law and Legal News. For each category, there is usually a listing of individual members of Congress and their home districts. To see what is being posted, log in and visit the “Your Stories” section. There, you will see a list of news items that have been posted to the members’ news feeds.

You can read what other members are reading by clicking on the “RSS Feeds” tab on the top right corner of the site. Select “RSS Feeds for Members” and chooses a list of feeds from which you wish to receive updates. New articles are added daily, as are comments. If you would like to leave a comment, you can click on the “E-Mail Newsletters” tab on the left hand navigation bar. A form will be presented allowing you to enter your e-mail address and a link to your newsletter.