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GovTrack is a great achievement and an excellent example of private efforts to provide a value-added resource based on public information.
I'd like to specifically comment on your statement:
"GovTrack also fetches voting records and other documents and puts them into XML."
Congress has done quite a bit with XML (see http://xml.house.gov). The House has been posting voting records and legislation in XML for some time: voting records are available in XML back to 1990 (e.g., http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1990/roll010.xml) and legislation since the beginning of 2004 (check out http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc108/ and http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc109/).
These files use client-side XSL for rendering. The raw XML can be viewed by choosing View Source in the browser. The XML files have also been integrated into Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov) where the public can search and retrieve Federal legislation. When a bill is displayed in Thomas, one of the options (at the top right) allows users to retrieve the corresponding XML file if the bill was created in XML. Congress has also added some links to the XML files for legislation, specifically for Public Laws going back to the 100th Congress (1987), US Code citations, and, when bills contain tables of content, the contents contain links to the appropriate locations within the file.
Congress doesn't have XML files for all legislation yet. Bills that pass both chambers are still missing and the Senate hasn't posted any of their legislation in XML yet, but they have been making good and steady progress.
The ids for Representatives you mentioned are already the same in the XML voting records and in the XML version of legislation:
VOTES
<recorded-vote>
<legislator name-id="B001244" sort-field="Bonner" unaccented-name="Bonner" party="R" state="AL" role="legislator">Bonner</legislator>
<vote>Aye</vote>
</recorded-vote>
LEGISLATION
<action-desc>
<sponsor name-id="I000056">Mr. Issa</sponsor> (for himself, <cosponsor name-id="C000059">Mr. Calvert</cosponsor>, and <cosponsor name-id="B001228">Mrs. Bono</cosponsor>) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the <committee-name committee-id="HII00">Committee on Resources</committee-name>
</action-desc>
These ids are also the same as the ids at http://bioguide.congress.gov which provides biographical information about all Senators and Representatives since the first Congress -- so there's definitely an id in common among these files. It certainly would be useful if Congress used the XML-XSL approach for the biographies that they are using for voting records and legislation. I'd bet having access to the biographical records in XML would further help tie the disparate information together.
I think Federal information is not in a single place because agencies and departments responsible for various pieces of the information. Fortunately, sites like GovTrack can be useful to the public by pulling the official information sources together in new and creative ways. Thanks again for all your efforts.
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