Database that tracks witnesses across proceedings with links, transcripts, summaries, QFRs, and search by name and role.
Problem
Witness testimony is typically siloed within the records of individual hearings. Tracking a particular witness’s appearances and the content of their testimony across multiple committees and Congresses is a difficult and time-consuming manual process.
Solution
Create a comprehensive database of congressional witnesses that includes:
- Unique Witness IDs: Assign a unique identifier to each witness.
- Proceeding Links: Track all proceedings (hearings and markups) where the witness has testified, with links to the relevant records.
- Testimony Transcripts: Include transcripts of both written and oral remarks made by the witness.
- Testimony Summaries: Generate summaries of both written and oral testimony, potentially using AI-powered summarization techniques.
- Questions for the Record (QFRs): Capture Questions for the Record submitted to the witness and their responses, which often appear in committee transcripts.
- Indexing: Index the database by both the witness’s name and their title/affiliation (e.g., “Jane Smith,” “FAA Administrator”). This allows for searching based on specific individuals or roles.