A Congressional Aid(e)

Next time your students are researching Congress, have them check out the Capitol Wizard database. Also known as CapWiz, the nonpartisan database is put together by Capitol Advantage, the nation's largest publisher of Congressional directories. It appears on more than 800 corporate, association, media, and university Web sites and portals, including those of C-SPAN and the New York Times. (An easy way for students to reach CapWiz is at www.congress.org.)

CapWiz aims to provide citizens with current information about goings-on in Washington, information that's especially helpful as the nation heads into another congressional campaign year. It also aims to connect people to government. The database includes bios and photos of federal and state officials, contact info, current legislation and issues explained in lay terms, roll calls of laws passed, House and Senate committees' daily schedules, a media guide, and a Z IP code search tool to find the representatives in your area.