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The brand-new, searchable Congressional Committee Profiles at www.crp.org let users see how much specific interest groups have pumped into the campaigns of all members of each House and Senate Committee. Profiles provides rankings of:

* Donations by industries with issues before each committee.

* Mini-profiles showing each committee member's campaign contributions by industry.

The profiles also include brief summaries of each committee's jurisdiction and the major issues it is likely to face in the new Congress.

This free Internet resource will help journalists and voters track the effects of campaign contributions on the legislative process at the committee level, where interest groups can exert an enormous influence on the shape of legislation.

Later in the year, the Center plans to add a feature that will let users correlate committee members' votes with the contributions they received from relevant interests.

The profiles illustrate how membership on such committees as the banking, tax-writing, transportation, or commerce panels can produce campaign contribution windfalls. They also identify some interesting giving patterns.

For example, industry and organized labor are generally viewed as mortal enemies on Capitol Hill. Yet, the interests of transportation unions and business converge before such committees as the House Transportation Committee, where labor and businesses that benefit from government spending on infrastructure projects are leading contributors.

In the case of other committees, competing interests may contribute generously in the hope of getting access to key members. For example, banks, credit unions, S&Ls, insurance companies, and investment firms often have competing legislative agendas, but all are among the top donors to members of the House and Senate banking committees. These committees are likely to be important battlegrounds this session, as competing financial services industries seek to shape legislation that would let them venture into each other's business.

The profiles will be especially useful to reporters before key issues are voted on in committee. Journalists will be able to note the contributions to committee member by groups with an interest in a particular bill before action is taken. For ordinary voters, this is one more tool that can be used to hold lawmakers accountable.

Campaign contribution data used in the profiles are based on filings with the Federal Election Commission during the 1997-98 election cycle. Senate profiles are based on six-year figures, 1993 through 1998.

The profiles will be updated with 1999-2000 election cycle data as it becomes available, and new features - including information on subcommittees - will be added as the year goes on.

The Center's Website at www.crp.org also provides campaign finance profiles for each member of the 106th Congress and searchable databases that allow users to do their own campaign finance and federal lobbying research. The Center's reports, publications, and Capital Eye newsletters also are available online. The Website was recently nominated for a "Webby" Award www.webbyawards.com  in the category of politics/law.

The Center for Responsive Politics is a non- partisan, non-profit research organization that studies the role of money in federal politics. The Center's programs are funded by major foundation grants.