franking laws

I reported yesterday about our HUGE VICTORY in the update in Franking Rules which will enable our Representatives to be better connected to constituencies and help build bridges between government and the people by providing them with information where they spend much of their time... ie facebook, myspace, twitter, etc...

A good example the Feds could incorporate into their newly found freedoms is something CA SOS Debra Bowen has done with her new YouTube channel.

Bowen campaigned in California in the heart of the uncertainty battle with electronic voting machines saying she was running for two reasons "Florida and Ohio." With the impending voter suppression on the horizon and the actualized fears we've seen thus far, its only fair to assume that voting rights advocates will have their work cut out for them.

Even one of the greatest American Patriots of our time had problems voting:

But I digress... Bowen's video mentions a pet issue "transparency" and asks for UGC about why WE are voting this year. I would, actually, like to hear from young what their first time was like in their first election - if it is their first time, what has it been like registering and getting information about candidates at all levels of government? Further, do people expect there to be difficulties, and what do they plan to do if there are... I am imagining some great role playing videos.

First, submission to Bowen's request - I vote because I believe in the right to dance....

Why do you vote? I vote for my right to bug elected leaders on twitter....

Happy Friday!

Sarah has done some stellar work here on the site reporting on the Franking Rules, which govern how Congress persons can communicate with their constituents. The gist being that it is in part due to these laws that many in Congress remain mired in the 20th Century, unable to make use of new technologies like YouTube. Arguments over those rules also instigated some partisan debate between Democrats and Republicans, resulting in the Let Our Congress Tweet campaign.

Well, the Sunlight Foundation says that the Senate is getting ready to update those rules to something a little more appropriate to this century:

Last year, the Open House Project proposed the loosening of rules governing what lawmakers can post to their official web sites. Last week, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration approved new rules to allow lawmakers to post content from third party sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and so on.

The new rules, while not immediately available for public review, appear to be far different from the ones proposed earlier this year. Earlier, Rules and Administration proposed to “keep a list of “approved Web sites” that agreed to provide pages free of advertisements or partisan leanings.”

In contrast to this proposal Republicans on the Committee offered a plan to allow lawmakers to post at their discretion, and in accordance with long-standing standards, with review by the Committee if necessary. The approved plan mirrors the Republican plan.

I'm sure we'll have more on this once the exact changes to the rules are made public.

We've been having this ongoing conversation about better access to our government both as a form of transparency and as a way to connect with our Representatives who both serve and ... represent us in Congress. We've even watched as John Culberson (R-TX) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) battled it out in real time over the Energy Bill on Twitter.

This week Culberson has waged his own mini-war against the House for shutting down his twitter activity.

On July 8th Culberson Tweeted

1. " I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen's ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them."

2. "Dem "Supreme Soviet" leadership of House would have to approve every Twitter before I could post it!!!"

3. They want to require prior approval of all posts to any public social media/internet/www site by any member of Congress!!! "

7. " I also must have a preapproved disclaimer on every Tweet that it is an official communication from a federal official for official business"

They go on. He's fighting about this in a very partisan way, but with Tim Ryan in the same boat, its not a partisan issue....(I agree with Dave from TP on this) its a tech issue.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our Franking Rules are just so out of step with where we are (and indeed where we're going) that there needs to be some kind of update. Most notably, there should be an update that encompass new technologies that will be created in the next half hour to two years. This whole telenovella actually began as an attempt to make our rules better, if you can believe it...

This began when, in attempts to "get it," ...

"Democratic Representative Michael Capuano sent a letter last month, written in bureaucratese, to a House administrative committee, trying to propose that Congress should create a more official way to represent official congressional communication on the Internet. The letter, dated June 24th, has been widely circulated by a Twitter user and Republican representative named John Culberson, who rallied congressional allies against the proposal...

Capuano is trying to update an existing set of rules that requires House members to submit some web and email communications for approval before being sent. Here’s the text of the rules in question, that I found via nonprofit The Sunlight Foundation’s Open House Project blog post on the matter."

Despite their own convoluted confusion and explanations, the two sides seem to both want the same thing.

"Culberson, as you’ll see if you watch his Qik video, is sincere about his desire to let congress members say whatever they want on any service. Capuano, via his press release, pays homage to the same idea, even if he can’t effectively translate that sentiment into his proposals."

Despite Culberson's partisan blame, he's aligned many supporters from the left as well as the Sunlight Foundation who has started the site Let Our Congress Tweet. While we all seem to be on the same side, its also important to note the members who don't have a side at all on this issue, because they have no idea what the Internets iz. Much less what The Facebook and the Google are up to.

Hopefully, these new dramas will bring to light a better understanding for members who are a bit technophobic or who have staffers that are fearful of losing control. Lord only knows what could happen... Representatives say the Darndest Things!! Holding people's feet to the fire might become the standard, and people like you and me might be able to lobby our members in real time on Facebook through our status updates. Ahh to dream....