nancy pelosi

After much too long our Congress can now use social networking sites. These sites cannot ever ever be used to promote campaigns or elections, but can be used to connect with constituents and have some transparency.

According to the press release

"The Committee on House Administration adopted new web regulations that will permit Members
to use outside websites like YouTube to communicate with constituents.

The new regulations, which are based upon a proposal presented in June by GOP Members of the Committee, represent a vital step to providing new, uncensored channels of communication between Members of Congress and their
constituents. The new web regulations, which were adopted via Committee poll, permit Members to post content on outside websites so long as the content is for "official purposes," and not personal, commercial or campaign related.

Ranking Republican Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., applauded Committee
Chairman Robert Brady, D-Pa., for his leadership and ability to achieve policy agreements in a nonpartisan fashion. "Mr. Brady recognized the need to allow enhanced constituent communication, and demonstrated outstanding leadership that enabled this Committee to adopt a long-overdue change,"
Ehlers stated. "It is imperative that Members have the ability to use whichever web services they feel will best inform their constituents about the important issues facing this country."

In a release from Speaker Pelosi's office the good Speaker heralded the new rules

"The rule revisions adopted by the Committee on House Administration today are a significant step forward toward bringing House rules into the multimedia age and allowing for Members to effectively communicate with their constituents online.

I commend Chairman Brady for his leadership and for the committee’s bipartisan efforts to modernize the antiquated franking regulations to address the realities of communications in the internet age. I also thank citizen initiatives such as the Open House Project for their thoughtful recommendations and continued efforts to encourage Members to engage their constituents through internet technologies.

In the 110th Congress, the House has made significant progress to increase transparency through technology – from webcasting more committee hearings to posting lobbying disclosure forms online. Openness, transparency, and accountability are the hallmarks of the New Direction Congress. We will continue our efforts to be a web 2.0 House in the 111th Congress."

A victory!!!

The DNCC Press Conference featuring Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and Texas State Senator Leticia Van de Putte appeared on stage this morning to talk about the upcoming convention, its inclusiveness and upcoming excitment.

I was able to ask the panelists about how they are reaching out to young voters and young people at the convention this year. The video is of their answer.

A few quick hits for today:

• Campus Politico interviews Keli Goff about her new book - Party Crashing: How the Hip Hop Generation Declared Political Independence. I ordered my copy earlier this week and am waiting for it to arrive.
• mtvU has announced that on April 8th, Nancy Pelosi will be the next politician to sit down with the student Editorial Board. Last month President Clinton was grilled by four students, all of whom did a good job at pressing the former president on the ups and downs of his presidency. Considering congress's low marks, it will be interesting to see if these young journalists let Speaker Pelosi off the hook because of Congress's recent work on student loans, or if they drill down on still-pressing topics like the environment, the war, the economy, and health care.
• Kristin Gorski has a very interesting post on the Huffington Post about how Sen. Obama's campaign has sparked the imagination of the graphic design community.
• CBS News has an interesting article about Obama's potential to be a map-changing candidate in November.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a Progress Report for Young Americans Wednesday touting the successes of the new Congressional Majority that won on a “new direction” agenda last fall.

“After years of neglect and inaction, much needs to be done. In the first year of this Congress, under new Democratic leadership, we are making progress.” The Speaker’s site says.

Of the 24 accomplishments on the checklist, ten have not yet been signed into law and two were vetoed. The Speaker’s agenda includes many of the things we’ve seen here on FM including college affordability and targeting global warming as the eminent threat young people have worked on for years.

“But there is much more to be done and Republicans are standing in the way,” continued David Hardt (President of the Young Democrats of America). “Democrats understand that young voters – be they college students, those starting in the workforce or beginning families – are focused on what their future looks like. That is why this huge voting block has rejected Republicans in election after election.”

Glancing through this you’ll see that many of these points are simply line items from the Speaker’s New Direction Agenda. I would argue that spinning the same agenda in a youthy way doesn’t necessarily make it youthy. But I don’t want to diminish the great successes Congressional Democrats have seen in their work. These are indeed things that benefit all Americans. The youthy and the wrinkled.

What is encouraging is the page itself. The Speaker – leader of the Congress - has shown an active interest in communicating the democratic agenda to young Americans. We spend a lot of time on FM talking about being ignored because leaders of both parties have been bungling the youth vote, ignoring the power of young voters, neglecting our agenda, and worst of all not taking us seriously. I think this is a good indication that they are at least putting forth some effort.

The issues that they targeted and brought over from the regular everyday agenda are indeed issues that are important to us: global Warming, health care, Iraq… Now, granted they aren’t stopping the war in Iraq, creating universal health care, or stopping global warming (all things we want) but – perhaps that flicker of hope is a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the mean time – newsflash – young people matter enough for Pelosi to make flashy graphics, spin the dem agenda, and do a press event with a pretty banner.

For more on the Youth Agenda you can read below the jump: