Congress has a great Web site. Your state legislature? Probably not so great.

Although the House of Representatives and the Senate have been online since the mid 1990s and the Library of Congress runs a useful site on Congress, the 50 state legislatures are not nearly as Internet savvy.

In fact, some are downright awful.

Below is our survey of three of the best and three of the worst state, based on the amount of information available and the ease of navigating it.

The Best Legislative Web sites

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s homepage is clean, logically organized and links directly to everything a visitor might look for, including a Who Represents Me? tool, committee schedule and live streaming of floor sessions.

Each member has a simple, standardized page displaying contact information and links to a brief biography, district map, committee assignments and sponsored bills.

Most members also have customized sites, which are more substantive and graphic-intensive, to the point of resembling the sites of members of Congress — a rarity among state sites.

Wisconsin's legislative information page features a comprehensive drop-down menu where users can easily look up legislation by chamber, type, author, and subject.

Bill histories are embedded with links to associated amendments, votes, and reports. Users can also sign up to receive customizable e-mail updates on legislative activity.

Washington

Washington's site also provides easy access to the information most often sought by constituents.

Distinguishing features include a page displaying members' portraits and member rosters that are sortable by name, party, district, county and room numbers.

Member pages are organized similarly to Wisconsin's: a simple yet informative standardized page links to another page maintained by the member. Among the highlights of the state sites are PDF charts listing the legislator's floor votes.

The member-maintained sites are designed by the four party caucuses and deploy the latest in web innovations. Visitors can subscribe to RSS feeds, access video and audio content, read blogs, and follow legislators on Twitter.

Washington's legislative information page may be the best in the nation. A multitude of tools allow users to sort and track bills in every way imaginable, from the moment they're introduced through final passage.

Minnesota

Minnesota's site is cluttered and overwhelming to the eye, but the failing is a consequence of the immense amount of useful information on offer.

Users can find statistical and demographic breakdowns of the legislature, pronunciation guides, rosters in Excel and PDF format, and a directory of all legislative staff.

Member pages are not lacking either. They include information on district demographics and a record of the legislator's activity in past sessions.

Minnesota's committee pages are a further strength. The jurisdiction of every committee is explained and users can access a list of every bill referred to each committee.

Minnesota's legislative information doesn't equal that of Wisconsin and Washington’s, but is more than adequate. One unique tool compares the House and Senate versions of the same bill side-by-side.