By concentrating on actions of members of Congress, project seeks to cut through partisan and ideological biases and provide citizens with accurate assessment of Congressional performance
SAN FRANCISCO, March 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — A disgruntled military vet has threatened to throw a wrench into the plans of career politicians that have failed to represent the values and desires of their constituents. Brett Hunter, a computer science student and recently separated vet, is developing a new Internet application that aims to identify all of the politicians on Capitol Hill that regularly place their own interests ahead of constituents.
"It's no longer business as usual for these politicians that fail to place the best interests of Americans before their own self-serving interests," says Hunter, the self-avowed apolitical founder of the GovRate Project (http://govrate.org). "My only political ambition is to ensure that Congress represents the values of ordinary Americans above personal, partisan or other special interests."
GovRate works by asking users to share their opinions on current and past legislation from both houses of Congress. It then compares these opinions to the actual voting record of the user's actual congressional representatives. In addition, GovRate acts as a catalyst for change by canvassing users for their own legislative proposals. GovRate compiles this information from all users and "rates" each member of Congress with a simple letter grade.
"For the first time, we're going to be able to see how Congress performs in real-time, with constant popular analysis of congressional actions," boasts Hunter. "I'm not a political person, but I just felt that something like this was sorely needed by the American public."
GovRate also collects other information on Congressmen including lobbyist activities, earmark spending, and controversial committee activities. This information is also integrated into the letter grades that politicians receive.
GovRate members have complete control over how all this information is weighted into the grading process, with the most important aspects of Congressional activities weighted the highest.
"All of our calculations are transparent and controlled by the consensus of our members. This is truly a grassroots-based and honest assessment of Congressional performance. We've set up an environment that mitigates the effects of partisan and ideological bias by asking people to analyze the actions of Congressmen rather than the individual members themselves," explains Hunter. "The widespread distribution of our ratings will help voters make informed decisions during the election cycle."
Development of GovRate is ongoing and Hunter hopes to launch a beta-version of the application to the general public in early Summer. For more information and to follow the progression of GovRate, visit http://govrate.org.
Contact: Brett Hunter, GovRate Project, (503) 894-5223, Email