Show HN: “Text me when my Congress member votes” – daily alerts, (not a app)

6 points by nanamanso1 a day ago

Hi HN,

I’ve been frustrated that I only find out how my representatives voted when the news cycle decides to cover it, so I built a simple script that texts me a digest instead.

What it is:

• Pick daily / weekly / bi-weekly / monthly

• Get one SMS listing each vote cast by your House rep + both Senators

• Messages include bill numbers, your rep’s “Yea/Nay/Present”, a one-sentence summary, and a link to congress.gov

How to try it:

1. Open the link (above)

2. Fill the Google Form with name + phone

3. Text “YES” back to opt in

(First month is free with code "PRODHUNT" so you can test it without paying carrier fees.)

Tech stack:

* Google Apps Script → polls Congress.gov REST + Senate XML

* Vercel edge function → handles inbound “YES/STOP” replies

* Stripe → recurring billing after the trial

* TextBelt → outbound SMS (cheapest I could find)

Everything is serverless; the sheet acts as the DB.

I’d like candid feedback on:

* edge-cases where the vote data is wrong or late

* UX: what’s confusing in the onboarding flow?

* thoughts on pricing (it’s \$1.99/mo because carriers charge for SMS)

No marketing fluff-just a hobby project that scratched an itch.

Happy to answer anything!

Previous discussion: none-this is the first release.

Thanks!