Web Standards: Publish a Non-House Site
Important Web Policies
- Active Server Pages: ASP
- Custom CGI Scripts
- House.gov Privacy Policy
- Publish a Non-House Developed Site
- Security Checklist (HISPUB 007.1.56) (PDF)
- Web Vendor Contract Agreement (PDF)
- Domain Name Policy (House IT Policy 003.0) (PDF)
- Vendor agreement update (Transition Policy 111-5) (PDF)
- Web video on Member websites
- Members’ Congressional Handbook (Web Sites)
- Committees’ Congressional Handbook (Web Site Regulations)
- Use of campaign material
Web Dear Colleagues (PDFs)
- 2009 FY10 Appropriation Requests
- 2006 House Blog Utility
- 2006 Use of Campaign Funds & Resources
- 2005 Helping Victims of Hurricane Katrina
- 2005 Helping Victims of Hurricane Katrina (attachment)
- 2004 Web Services Vendors
- 2003 E-mail & Subscriber List Policies
- 2003 Support Our Troops Web Sites
Before Beginning Web Development
House Offices and Web Vendors must contact CAO Web Solutions at 202 226-2140 prior to beginning any custom web development work to discuss supported web technologies, security and web policies.
Follow these Procedures to Publish a Non-House Developed Web Site
1. Complete the site setup and get data input so it is ready to go live.
2. The Web site must be in its own "house.gov" domain for testing (i.e., not "test.mycompany.house.gov/officename" or "www.house.gov/officename"). The standard name is "test.officename.house.gov". Contact Web Solutions to get the "test" domain set up.
3. The Web site must reside in the "house.gov" domain for the CAO security audit. CAO Security will not scan Web sites outside the house.gov domain.
4. The site must pass an CAO security audit. Please contact Web Solutions to schedule the security audit. Please allow 5 business days per audit request. New vendors or developers should allow more time to handle failed audits.
5. Please contact Web Solutions to schedule a review of the Web site for compliance with:
- House regulations regarding Representatives’ Web sites as specified in the Members' Congressional Handbook, or
- House regulations regarding Committee Web sites as specified in the Committees' Congressional Handbook,
- compliance with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and its regulations
- compliance with W3C HTML/XHTML standards (http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/#recommendations). (This is particularly important with the release of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7.0, as this browser will enforce these standards and will affect how Web sites are viewed through it).
- compliance with the W3C WCAG standards
6. When the URL or Web site vendor changes, the House Office must submit the "Web Hosting & URL Form", available internally on HouseNet. The form must be faxed to Web Solutions.
7. If CAO Web Solutions will be publishing the site, the House Office must submit the "Publish Authorization" letter , available internally on HouseNet. This letter indicates the Member/Chairman/Leader has reviewed and approved the new Web site. The letter must be faxed to Web Solutions.
8. Upon receiving the transfer form and completing the security audit, CAO will do the following:
- Make sure the internal and external DNS entries are set up
- Make sure redirects are in place
- Make sure the www.house.gov home page goes to the correct location
- Make sure the www.house.gov search engine points to the correct location
