How it works
The rules are published in advance and applied the same way to every proposal.
Filing and signing
File a specific proposal. One proposal, one action, one body of Congress.
People sign with an email address and a ZIP code. The email must be confirmed.
ZIP maps to a congressional district. One person, one signature, per proposal.
Signers attest to age, residence, and citizenship. This site cannot query federal citizenship records. Counts are attested signatures, not a verified voter roll.
District assignment in this preview is approximate.
Published thresholds
| Collecting | Live page, awaiting approval, not in the catalog |
| Listed | Approved for the catalog |
| National | 25,000 signatures and 50 House districts |
| Ready to notify | 100,000 signatures and 100 House districts. The notice packet has not been sent yet. |
| Congress notified | 100,000 signatures and 100 House districts. Packet approved and sent to offices that represent signers. |
| Archived | The window closed. The URL and counts remain searchable. |
Archive rules
Collecting proposals are archived at 30 days if they are never approved.
Listed and above stay open 365 days. After 365 days, the proposal is archived; the URL and counts remain.
If signatures arrive in the last 14 days of the window, the window extends 30 days.
Congress notified
A proposal that has met the send threshold but whose packet has not been sent shows Ready to notify. It changes to Congress notified once the packet is approved and sent.
Reaching the count makes a proposal eligible. An operator approves the notice and sends it. Congress notified means the notice was sent, not that Congress agreed. Signers attest to age, residence, and citizenship; counts are not a verified voter roll.
We do not notify all members of Congress. A notice goes only to offices that represent the signers. Signing is not the same as a letter from you. Signers who chose "Email me if this is sent to Congress" are emailed after the notice is sent. That email is a link back to this site, where you edit a short letter, open your member's official contact form, and print a one-page letter to mail. The site does not submit the form or mail the letter for you.
The office directory is a public roster and may lag vacancies or special elections.
The member table appears only after Congress is notified, under the heading What Congress has done. Each office is listed with one status:
- No public response
- Statement
- Bill introduced
- Hearing held
- Recorded vote
The member record tracks public action. It is not a law, not a required vote, and not a judgment about whether the proposal will be acted on.
Review and removal
Proposals are not approved for quality or politics. Filings that are illegal, that threaten or expose private people, or that are spam are removed. Lawful proposals stay up even when they are unpopular.
A filed proposal has a working public link immediately. It joins the catalog as soon as it is approved. A removed proposal keeps its address and shows the reason it was removed.
What this site does not do
The Citizen's Docket does not bind Congress. It is a public record of proposals, support, and subsequent public action.
The Citizen's Docket does not endorse proposals, does not sell counts, and does not accept paid placement. Any lawful, specific proposal is allowed. Vague proposals are flagged by the filing form, not by ideology.