Promo: Keeping up with laws and lawmakers can be easy...if you have the Internet. Find out how, next.

Looking for accountability in government? You can find out the what and who on the Internet in just two sites.

When you need to know about current legislation, Thomas is who you need to ask. Thomas is the Library of Congress's Legislative Information on the Internet and can be found at thomas.loc.gov, another fine government Web site.

Let's say we are interested in finding more about the "Hope Scholarship." We can either type in the bill number or, if we don't know the number, search for the bill by text or phrase.

When we do that, we get 6 bills with the exact words requested. We'll select the billed that was sent to the President, find the section on the Hope Scholarship and begin reading. It's just that simple.

If you ever want to know exactly how a law gets from an idea to the President's signature, be sure and read How Laws are Made, also on the Thomas site.

If a particular piece of legislation interests you, talk to your U.S. representative. You can find them at www.congress.org. Choose the U.S. Congressional Directory.

Suppose we need the name of the U.S. senator from Texas. We see that Senators Gramm and Hutchinson represent our state. We select Senator Hutchinson and go to her Web page. We can browse through information, e-mail her or check up on her key staff members. We can also check the committees that she is on and even see how she voted for each bill. If we don't know who the representatives are for our area, it is no problem either. Select Find You Member and enter your ZIP Code.

So the next time you need to find out more about the laws or lawmakers, check the Internet first.

From age 6 to 96 and beyond, there is something on the Internet for everyone. I'm Jack Nelson, The Internet Tutor.