About · Legislate

Legislate turns the House and Senate into a deck of cards. Each side tries to build 30 Support for its bill first, using members to lobby for it and procedural moves like the filibuster to slow the other side down.

Every card is a real member

The card pool is every current member of Congress. A card's cost and strength come from the member's real record: years served, which chamber they sit in, leadership posts, and the committees they chair or rank on. Long careers and powerful posts make stronger, pricier cards.

Members also earn keywords from their careers:

Leader: Party leaders. Rally your other members.
Whip: Party whips. Get a member to act again.
Gatekeeper: Committee chairs. Block the other side from lobbying.
Oversight: Ranking members. Damage a rival when they arrive.
Institution: Members with 20 or more years served. Add Support every turn.
Firebrand: First-term members. Act the turn they're played.

Every procedure card teaches something

The action cards are real parts of the legislative process. Each one explains the real thing:

Filibuster: In the Senate, debate can continue indefinitely unless 60 senators vote to invoke cloture.
Cloture: A cloture vote (60 senators) ends debate and moves a bill toward a final vote.
Earmark: Earmarks direct federal money to specific projects in a member's district, often to win votes.
Committee Markup: In markup, a committee debates and amends a bill before sending it to the full chamber.
Town Hall: Town halls let members hear directly from voters in their state or district, and come back to Washington energized.
Media Cycle: A bad news cycle can sap a politician's standing almost overnight.
Primary Challenge: Members can lose their seat to a challenger from their own party in a primary election.
Veto Threat: A President's threat to veto a bill can cost it support before it ever passes.
Lobbyist: Lobbyists advocate for interest groups and supply members with information and arguments.
Recess: During recess, Congress is out of session and members return home.
Reconciliation: Budget reconciliation lets certain fiscal bills pass the Senate with a simple majority, bypassing the filibuster.

Fair to both parties

Democrats and Republicans play by identical rules. Each deck is built from its own party's members plus a few crossovers from across the aisle, and independents can serve either side. Legislate doesn't take positions on policy; the bills are fictional.

Where the data comes from

Members, terms, leadership and committees come from the public-domain congress-legislators project.
Portraits are official photos from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, with Wikimedia Commons as a fallback. Commons photos are credited to their authors on the card.
The data is refreshed by re-importing, so cards follow changes in Congress.

Legislate is an independent project and isn't affiliated with the U.S. Congress or any party.

Play

New to the game? The guided tutorial walks you through your first game. Already know the ropes? Start a game against the computer.