For civics and U.S. government, grade 7 and up
Teach the Congress that's in session, not the one in the textbook.
- Start with your Three. The two Senators and one Representative who serve your school. Type in the school name and the site finds them.
- Split your class into two groups. The site picks twelve of the busiest legislators. Each group reads their records and chooses three to follow. With your school's Three, that gives each group six to watch.
- One period a week. Set it up any day. From the next weekday morning on, your class page updates itself from the public record. Each week the page suggests a lesson that fits what those six did.
Recent bills from the public record, Oct 19 to 25
H.R. 10899 Introduced To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for individual and household assistance in the event of a prolonged power outage, and for other purposes.What to expect. Congress, taught from each week's record. How it fits a semester.
- Setting up
- About twenty minutes of setup, or a full period if you teach where your Three come from and how to choose the rest.
- How long
- A semester, or as long as you want. Nothing expires.
- If you miss a week
- Nothing breaks. The record keeps updating and badges stay earned.
Free to use. Runs in any browser. Students never need an account.
Straight from the record
Last week, in the words Congress used.
Not a simulation and not a case study written years ago. This is what six legislators, three from each party, did last week, taken straight from the record.
To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to provide for individual and household assistance in the event of a prolonged power outage, and for other purposes.
Haley Stevens of Michigan. No cosponsor from the other party.
To provide additional options on certain federal application forms to allow an individual to elect to be an organ donor and for other purposes.
Michael Lawler of New York. Cosponsored across party lines by Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for nonrecognition of gain or loss on like-kind exchanges of certain residential real property, and for other purposes.
Michael Lawler of New York. Cosponsored across party lines by Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
The question underneath all of it
Every bill of a Congress. One mark each.
The 119th is still sitting: 138 of 17,016 so far, about one in 123. At this same point the 118th stood at one in 148 and finished at one in 60. In each of the last 6 Congresses, 26% to 61% of the laws came after this point. Students find out where the rest went.
119th Congress, as of October 26, 2026: 17,016 bills and joint resolutions introduced, 138 signed into law so far. Not finished, so that is not its rate.
Across the 6 finished Congresses, the 113th to the 118th, 2,051 of 76,854 became law. About one in 37. The current Congress's marks move every week, which is the reason no textbook has this page.
Where each group's six come from
You inherit your Three with the building.
Every school sits in one House district and one state, so exactly three members of Congress represent it. The address decides, not the class.
Live outside the school's district? You may have a different Three at home.
Your Three
Chosen by the class
The whole of setup. It happens once, on the projector, out loud.
Why twelve? The three busiest from each party in each chamber over the last 30 days, and any independent busy enough to make it. One list for every class, new each Monday.
A full lesson, free to use now
Who holds the gavel
Almost every bill dies in committee. Across 7 Congresses and 93,870 bills, one thing separates the bills that get out from the ones that do not, and it is the one thing a single member of Congress actually controls.
Three of those 7 Congresses had the two chambers held by different parties at the same time, and the pattern holds in both chambers at once. That is the reason this is a lesson about procedure rather than about a party.