The channel, dubbed YouTube Town Hall, is filled with debates surrounding the budget, economy, energy, Afghanistan, education and health care. Initially topics were chosen by popularity on Google News and Google web search over the past year, but YouTube plans to accept questions from viewers in the future.
Each debate features two members of Congress who explain their points of view on the given topic in videos made especially for the Town Hall channel.
Sides are not necessarily drawn along party lines, and viewers only find out what party each debater belongs to (unless they recognize him or her, of course) after they choose which person's perspective they support. Those votes will be tallied and displayed on a leader board to show who is "winning" the debate.
YouTube first started encouraging Congress members' content in January 2009, with the launch of The Senate Hub and The House Hub. YouTube Head of News and Politics Steve Grove estimates that at that time, about half of the members of Congress had YouTube channels. Now, more than 90% have them, and several presidential candidates -- including President Barack Obama -- have used YouTube to launch their campaigns.