2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill
Source: Congressional Management Foundation
From press release:

A new report from the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) on congressional Web sites says the overall quality “continues to be disappointing,” with more than 40% of congressional Web sites earning a substandard or failing grade. The report also contains recognition and praise for the best Web sites on Capitol Hill with the announcement of the winners of the 2007 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse Awards.
…
Key findings from the report:

• Half of the sites that earned “F”s last year received the same grade in 2007, and a full 63% of Member sites that received a “D” in 2006 received the same grade or slipped to an “F” in 2007.
• The most common letter grade in the Senate was a “B” compared to a “D” in the House. In the Senate, 33% fewer sites received a failing grade in 2007, whereas in the House, the percentage of failing sites jumped from 12% to 21%-an increase of 75% since our 2006 evaluations.
• The number of substandard or failing committee sites increased to 44%, and the percentage of House and Senate committee (both majority and minority) Web sites scoring an “F” doubled between 2006 and 2007.
• In 2006, Republican sites performed slightly better than their Democratic counterparts. In 2007, Democratic sites now hold a slight edge, with 61% of Democratic sites earning a grade of “C” or better, compared to 55% of Republican sites.
• A surprising number of the 110th Congress freshmen excelled out of the gate-16% of the new Members received “A” grades, garnering them 2007 Gold, Silver, or Bronze Mouse Awards.
• The top-tier congressional Web sites continued to excel in 2007, with 44% of the 2006 award-winning Member sites winning a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Mouse Award again this year. In fact, 8 Member Web sites scored higher than the highest-scoring sites last year.

Among the report’s major criticisms of Member Web sites:

• One third of congressional sites still did not have a functional search engine.
• Information about legislative issues with particular state or local interest was not available on 57% of Member Web sites.
• A full 26% of all Member sites did not have links to sponsored or co-sponsored legislation. Of the ones that did, 23% did not reference the most current session of Congress.

+ Full Report (PDF; 3.35 MB)

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