feat: Senate Activity Dashboard - Track bills, votes, and politician performance

[iamgerwin]

Feature Request: Senate Activity Visualization Dashboard

Problem Statement

Citizens lack a clear, accessible way to track what senators are actually doing in office. The current Senate website (https://web.senate.gov.ph/lis/leg_sys.aspx) provides raw data but lacks user-friendly visualization and analysis tools that would help voters make informed decisions.

Proposed Solution

Create an interactive Senate Activity Dashboard that visualizes:

• Bills authored, co-authored, and sponsored by each senator
• Voting records (for/against/abstain) on key legislation
• Party affiliations and alliance history over time
• Track record verification with source links
• Bill impact explainers for citizens
• Performance metrics and attendance records

Core Features

1. Senator Profile Pages

• Basic Information: Name, party, term dates, contact info
• Legislative Activity:
  • Bills authored/co-authored with status tracking
  • Committee memberships and leadership roles
  • Attendance records for sessions and committee meetings
• Voting History: Visual timeline of votes on major bills
• Party Timeline: Historical party affiliations and switches
• Campaign Promises vs Actions: Track if they're doing what they promised

2. Bill Tracker & Explorer

• Bill Details:
  • Full text and summary
  • Current status in legislative process
  • Authors and co-sponsors
  • Committee assignments
  • Voting results breakdown
• Impact Analysis:
  • Plain language explainers
  • Affected sectors/demographics
  • Estimated budget impact
• Timeline Visualization: Progress through legislative stages

3. Voting Analytics

• Vote Alignment Matrix: See which senators vote together most often
• Party Line Analysis: Track party unity on key votes
• Issue-Based Filtering: Filter by topic (healthcare, education, economy, etc.)
• Comparison Tools: Compare voting records of multiple senators

4. Performance Metrics Dashboard

• Productivity Metrics:
  • Bills filed vs passed
  • Committee participation rate
  • Session attendance rate
• Influence Indicators:
  • Bills that became law
  • Leadership positions held
  • Cross-party collaboration
• Transparency Score: Based on asset disclosure, office spending, etc.

5. Interactive Features

• Search & Filter:
  • By senator, bill, keyword, date range
  • By issue area or committee
• Data Export: Download voting records and bill data
• Comparison Mode: Side-by-side senator comparisons
• Election Mode: Filter by senators up for reelection

Technical Implementation

Data Sources

• Senate Legislative Information System API (if available)
• Web scraping from senate.gov.ph (with proper rate limiting)
• Manual data entry for historical records
• Cross-reference with news sources for verification

Frontend Components Needed

• Senator card components with summary stats
• Interactive voting record charts (using Recharts)
• Timeline components for party history
• Bill status tracker component
• Search and filter interface
• Responsive data tables

Backend Requirements

• Data ingestion pipeline for Senate data
• Database schema for bills, votes, senators
• API endpoints for filtering and searching
• Caching layer for performance
• Regular data sync schedule

User Stories

1. As a voter, I want to see what my senator has accomplished so I can decide whether to vote for them again
2. As a researcher, I want to analyze voting patterns to understand political alliances
3. As a citizen, I want to understand how proposed bills will affect me
4. As a journalist, I want to fact-check politician claims about their record
5. As an advocate, I want to track progress of bills I care about

Success Metrics

• User engagement time on dashboard
• Number of bills tracked
• Data accuracy (verified against official sources)
• Page load performance
• Mobile responsiveness
• Accessibility compliance

Mockup Ideas

Implementation Phases

Phase 1: Basic Dashboard (MVP)

• Senator listing with basic info
• Simple bill tracker
• Basic voting records

Phase 2: Enhanced Analytics

• Voting patterns visualization
• Party affiliation timeline
• Performance metrics

Phase 3: Interactive Features

• Comparison tools
• Comments/discussion section
• Export functionality

Phase 4: Advanced Features

• Predictive analytics
• Campaign promise tracking
• API for third-party use

Acceptance Criteria

• Dashboard loads within 3 seconds
• Mobile responsive design
• Data updated at least daily
• All data sourced and linked
• Accessibility WCAG 2.1 AA compliant
• Search returns relevant results
• Visualizations are interactive
• Export functionality works
• Tests cover critical paths
• Documentation complete

Related Issues

• Could integrate with existing government section
• May need updates to data fetching infrastructure
• Consider adding House of Representatives next

Resources

• Senate website: https://web.senate.gov.ph/lis/leg_sys.aspx
• Congress API endpoints (to research)
• Historical voting data sources
• Party affiliation records

Discussion Points

• Should we include a commenting system?
• How to handle data verification and fact-checking?
• Privacy considerations for personal senator data
• How to present complex bills in simple terms?
• Integration with election calendar for voter guide mode?

[devcsrj]

Hey! I only saw your issue after I posted mine:

• [IDEA] Indexed legislature #186

I have prior work, so I added more context in that ticket. I do have thoughts on your discussion points:

Should we include a commenting system?

No. This opens the can of worms of which comments is to be displayed on top. Moderating these comments is a huge possible point of bias, and impossible to be kept neutral.

I would love to see instead, Filipinos sharing pages from this on social media, and keep the discussions there. This allows an wider reach and awareness for the project itself.

How to handle data verification and fact-checking?

This is one of the considerations on why, when I attempted I want the Journals to be the source instead of what is displayed on the websites of Senate and House. In the Journal is the actual word for word minutes of the sessions held by the both parts of the Congress. These journals are serialized as PDF and is freely downloadable by anyone.

[iamgerwin]

✅ Senate Activity Dashboard Implementation Complete

Changes Made:

• Resolved merge conflicts from PR feat: implement Senate Activity Dashboard for legislative transparency #51 with the latest main branch
• Fixed TypeScript linting issues for production-ready code
• Implemented comprehensive Senate dashboard at /government/senate/dashboard

Features Included:

• 📊 Overview Tab: Key metrics and top performers at a glance
• 👥 Senators Tab: Interactive senator profiles with performance stats
• 📜 Bills Tab: Legislative tracking with status timeline
• 🗳️ Voting Records Tab: Voting patterns, party alignment analysis
• 📈 Performance Tab: Productivity metrics and leaderboards

Technical Details:

• Added TypeScript interfaces for Senate data structures
• Created reusable React components (SenatorCard, BillCard, VotingChart, PerformanceMetrics)
• Integrated with Recharts for data visualization
• Responsive design with Tailwind CSS
• All linting errors resolved

Testing:

• ✅ Build successful (npm run build)
• ✅ Development server tested
• ✅ ESLint validation passed

The PR has been updated with the resolved conflicts and is ready for review.