Evan Herman

The protest begins Sunday May 31st at Midnight. Will you be ready?
Self-hosted WordPress site owners who want to participate in protesting the renewal of the Patriot Act can install and activate this plugin to enqueue the Blackout Congress detection script.
The Blackout Congress detection script will block access to Congress’ IP addresses and redirect them to the <a href="https://www.blackoutcongress.org/" title="Blackout Congress Homepage" rel="nofollow ugc">blackout protest page</a>.
For more information please read the following article: <a href="http://wptavern.com/fight-for-the-future-leads-congress-blackout-campaign-to-protest-the-patriot-act" rel="nofollow ugc">Fight for the Future Leads Congress Blackout Campaign to Protest the Patriot Act</a>
Note: 
This plugin is extremely lightweight at only 30 lines of code.
Script provided by <a href="blackoutcongress.org" rel="nofollow ugc">Blackout Congress</a>.

Blackout Congress

Blackout Congress' IP addresses from visiting your site, and redirect them to the blackout protest page.

CreativEngine, Inc.

Capitol GAINS (Government Archives & Information Navigation Suite) is a comprehensive WordPress plugin that provides a suite of tools for managing congressional operations, including meetings, participants, members, files, and related data. The plugin integrates with Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) Pro and Elementor for content management and display.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Meeting Management: Create, update, and manage congressional meetings with full metadata support</li>
<li>Participant & Member Tracking: Manage witnesses, nominees, and committee members</li>
<li>File Management: Upload and organize meeting files with embargo support</li>
<li>REST API: Complete REST API for external system integration</li>
<li>CSV Import: Bulk import meetings, panels, panel members, members, participants, and files via CSV</li>
<li>Elementor Integration: Custom widgets for displaying meetings, files, filters, and more</li>
<li>Live Hearings: Support for live streaming and upcoming meeting alerts</li>
<li>Advanced Filtering: Dynamic filter system with real-time count updates</li>
<li>Preview System: Generate previews of meetings before publishing</li>
</ul>
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>WordPress: 6.2 or higher</li>
<li>PHP: 7.4 or higher</li>
<li>ACF Pro: Required (plugin will show notice if not active)</li>
<li>Elementor: Optional but recommended for frontend display</li>
</ul>
<h4>Custom Post Types</h4>
The plugin registers the following custom post types:
<ul>
<li>Meetings (<code>meeting</code>) – Main meeting post type</li>
<li>Participants (<code>meeting_participant</code>) – Witnesses and nominees</li>
<li>Members (<code>meeting_member</code>) – Committee members</li>
<li>Meeting Files (<code>meeting_file</code>) – Files associated with meetings</li>
</ul>
<h4>Taxonomies</h4>
<ul>
<li>Meeting Status (<code>meeting_status</code>)</li>
<li>Meeting Type (<code>meeting_type</code>)</li>
<li>Committee Type (<code>committee_type</code>)</li>
<li>Privacy Type (<code>privacy_type</code>)</li>
<li>Congress (<code>congress</code>)</li>
<li>Subcommittee (<code>subcommittee</code>)</li>
<li>Participant Type (<code>participant_type</code>)</li>
</ul>
Taxonomies can be enabled/disabled and assigned to different post types via plugin settings.
<h4>Database</h4>
The plugin uses custom database tables for optimized data storage:
<ul>
<li><code>wp_capigacr_meetingmeta</code> – Meeting metadata</li>
<li><code>wp_capigacr_participantmeta</code> – Participant metadata</li>
<li><code>wp_capigacr_membermeta</code> – Member metadata</li>
<li><code>wp_capigacr_filemeta</code> – File metadata</li>
</ul>
Database migrations are handled manually via admin UI.
<h4>API Integration</h4>
The plugin provides a comprehensive REST API for external system integration with endpoints for:
<ul>
<li>Creating and updating meetings</li>
<li>Managing files</li>
<li>Checking meeting existence</li>
<li>Getting live meetings</li>
<li>Filter counts</li>
<li>Preview generation</li>
</ul>
Base URL: <code>/wp-json/meetings/v1/</code>
<h4>External Services</h4>
This plugin may fetch data from external services in the following scenarios:
<ul>
<li>File Imports: When importing files via CSV, the plugin may download files from external URLs if specified in the import data. This is user-initiated and requires explicit import action.</li>
</ul>
All external requests use WordPress’s built-in HTTP API with proper SSL verification and timeouts.

Capitol GAINS: CreativEngine Congressional Utilities

Capitol GAINS delivers meeting, member, file, and live-hearing utilities for Congress workflows with ACF and Elementor integrations.

Blackout Congress vs Capitol GAINS: CreativEngine Congressional Utilities