The Senate's First Decade on the Web

As the World Wide Web has grown, so has the content and mission of Senate.gov. The pages of information are becoming catalogs and databases, but the mission to provide the public with accurate and timely information remains constant.

A virtual tour of the Capitol and Senate committee pages were new features of the second Senate home page, introduced in January 1997 A graphical interface and improved access to legislative data came with technologic advances. Information about institutional procedures, history, and statistical records were also new to the site.

Senate floor and committee schedule information were provided when the 106th Congress convened and the third home page was launched on January 6, 1999. The site received a Federal Design Award, issued by the National Endowment for the Arts and the General Services Administration. The award recognized the site for "humaniz[ing] the venerable institution of the Senate by making its everyday activities and rich history readily accessible to the public."

There were more than 40 million visitors to the Senate website this year--five times more than the estimated 8 million visitors in 2001. The number one goal of the Senate website will always be to provide the public with easy access to the home page for every senator. The site's secondary goal is to provide information about the Senate, a role that grows as technology improves. The Senate's fourth home page with the functionality of a powerful, behind-the-scenes content management system, allowed nontechnical subject experts to post information to the website, greatly increasing the amount of relevant information available to the public