Congressional Quarterly this week announced the launch of CQ MoneyLine, a tool that enables lobbyists, journalists, candidates and other individuals who are tracking the flow of money in politics. CQ MoneyLine, which was previously known as PoliticalMoneyLine, has a new web site with increased functionality and is integrated into Congressional Quarterly's main site, CQ.com. PoliticalMoneyLine was acquired by CQ last July and had its own web site before this launch.
CQ MoneyLine provides users with access to more than 25 years of data. The content included on the site, which is collected from sources such as the FEC, IRS, House and Senate, is updated within hours of being made available. Specific tasks users will be able to complete are: track contributions from PACs, individual donors, politicians, elected officials, candidates and party committees; learn which industry sectors raise and distribute the most money and where that money is being used; follow the flow of soft money through 527 groups (such as MoveOn.org and Progress for America); and retrieve information about thousands of lobbyists, indexed by client and issue.
Among the new features is simplified navigation. The 58 links on the PoliticalMoneyLine site were consolidated into three landing pages and one lookup tool on CQ MoneyLine to simplify the search process. There is also an expanded search capability that provides many ways in which to search for campaign finance information. The integration with the CQ.com site has led to integration with other CQ services, such as CQ Member Profiles.
This new tool has been part of the CQ family since PoliticalMoneyLine was acquired in July 2006, but this launch marks its official welcoming into the CQ family. The acquisition is clearly a good fit and the new site will undoubtedly draw more traffic to this particular offering and to the CQ.com site as well. Congressional Quarterly didn't rush the integration and that's probably a good thing. The company needed time to make sure it got it right. As users begin to visit the new site, CQ will quickly learn if they did.