President Barack Obama’s commitment to transparency and open government has resulted in a surprising response from conservatives — many of whom are trying to outdo the White House with their own efforts to engage the citizenry.
The top two leaders of House Republicans, Reps. John Boehner (Ohio) and Eric Cantor (Va.), have appealed directly to Americans as the first policy battle of Obama’s administration takes shape.
The week before Obama took office, Cantor held a hearing on Capitol Hill that featured four video questions from citizens about the economic stimulus. The hearing had a similar feel to the YouTube debates during the presidential primaries. Boehner, meanwhile, invited users to ask questions on Digg. Nearly 1,500 were submitted, and Boehner answered the top questions on CNN.
It’s not just lawmakers who have urged greater transparency for the stimulus. Just hours after the House Appropriations Committee released the initial draft of the bill, The Heritage Foundation teamed with Rob Neppell of Kithbridge and a coalition of taxpayer organizations to put the economic stimulus bill online in a searchable and linkable form that allows users to comment on specific language.
ReadTheStimulus.org gives citizens a voice in the process. During the debate over comprehensive immigration reform in May 2007, Neppell took a leaked version of the legislation and made is easy for citizens to read an offer feedback. In the past two years, no federal legislation has come close to generating the same kind of public reaction than what happened during the immigration debate.
Someday soon, perhaps, Congress itself will make it easier for the public to engage in legislative debates. Until then, it’s going to require the work of organizations like those Jeff wrote about last week to play a leading role.
[...] an intersting item from the lobbyist blog K Street Cafe, “a blog where experts from a variety of backgrounds share new and novel ways technology, the [...]