Here at WashingtonWatch.com, we work to simplify the complex process of lawmaking, but it’s still pretty complex. And following the issues that matter to you is hard to do. So here’s a quick primer on how to do that using this site.

Many bills have a list of subjects in the “Learn More” box. Here’s the list of subjects for H.R. 45, the Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. (These are added by the Congressional Research Service.)

If you click on a subject, you can see all the bills that deal with that same subject matter. So if you were to click on “Firearms,” you’d see this list. Bills are listed with the most active ones at the top. These are the bills that other WashingtonWatch.com visitors are looking at and voting and commenting on.

You can also browse subjects. In the left column on every page, follow the link that says, “Click here to see bills organized by subject.” Go ahead and click on the image to the left to see that list.

What you will see is a list of subject groups. Clicking on a subject group gets you to a list of the subjects in that group. Choose one of those subjects to see all the bills that deal with that topic.

So now what do you do? It’s time to learn about the miracle of RSS feeds. RSS feeds are ways to learn when a Web site has been updated – or when one of the subject lists has been updated. Here’s our page discussing RSS feeds. It links to this page with more information and how to get started.

How do you find our RSS feeds? On any page of interest to you, look for the little symbol over on the right. That tells you that there’s a feed available. Sometimes it’s labeled to tell you what the feed is about. If you click on it, you’ll see the feed in your browser. (Some make it easy to read, some don’t.) If you right click on it and copy it, you can paste it into your feed reader and get an update whenever a new bill on the subject matter you’re interested in shows up.

Now let’s say there’s a particular bill that you want to get updates about. Scroll down to the bottom of the bill page. You’ll see a whole stack of RSS feeds. There’s a feed that will tell you when the bill’s status changes (i.e. when it is moving through Congress). There’s a feed that will show you every comment on a bill. There is a feed for revisions to the wiki article about a bill. And there’s a “combined” feed that captures all of these things.

If you prefer, you can at least get some of that information sent to you via email.  Create a WashingtonWatch.com account, go to the bill that you care about, and click the “watch” tab. (That tab appears when you’re logged in and disappears when you’re not, so if you don’t see it, make sure you’re logged in.) You’ll receive an email whenever there is a change to the wiki article about the bill, which includes updates to the status, so you’ll know when the bill is moving.

There you have it! In just about 550 words, we’ve made it 100% simple to follow the issues that you care about. Well, sort of. Hopefully, this makes it a little easier for some of you, at least.