Is Congress.Gov Being Acquired by FiscalNote.Com?
If so , does that mean FiscalNote is subject to FACA rules?
Since yesterday every time I try to access Congress.gov (Library of Congress) I get the message that I have been blocked
So I posted about it on Facebook and the next morning I saw this:
I didn’t post a link to FiscalNotes but there it was!
So I looked up FiscalNote on whois. It has a mailing address located in Iceland
And I looked up Congress.gov on whois. All contact info is redacted for privacy.
For all it is worth Congres.gov uses Cloudfare which was also used by Musk to circumvent Brazil’s ban of X for some X users in Brazil
How Did Cloudflare Let Elon Musk's X Dodge Brazil's Ban?
Then I found this:
FiscalNote Announces Acquisition of Oxford Analytica
I looked up Oxford Analytica on Whois. Looks normal.
None of this leads to conclusions of any significance but it does beg the Question: Will we be hearing an announcement that Congress.org has been acquired by FiscalNotes? Has it already been acquired and no one bothered to tell the public?
Who would be authorized to sell Congress.gov to a private entity? Should not this be within the domain of Congress?
Is it advisable from a security perspective?
Since FiscalNotes is in the Big Data business that focuses on government regulations, the company should be well aware of the FACA rules for any advisory council to the US government. Will it comply where DOGE did not?
What would ownership of the website for our Library of Congress mean to Americans and the users of the Congress.gov website?
How does it affect writing law in the US which is constitutionally the role of Congress?
If a global organization is writing regulations or making budgetary recommendations for the US government, whose interests does it serve?
And most importantly, is it constitutional?
These are all purely speculative questions. It may not be the case that FiscalNote is taking over the role of advising about the US budget, laws, and regulations, but the reason why Congress.gov is blocked begs an answer.
If you want to look up The US Constitution and Statutory Laws, you can find them at The Cornell Law School Website