Letter to Nancy Pelosi on committee transparency

From dKosopedia

Please help edit this letter about improving information available on committee information.

Please also see the discussion page of this page to view relevant house rules.

Dear Speaker--Gatordem 09:03, 27 November 2006 (PST) Nancy Pelosi,

The netroots community looks forward to a new Democratic-led Congress that will restore the principles and practice of oversight and accountability in the federal government.

In order to facilitate our goal of supporting and working with the new Democratic-led Congress, we need your help in obtaining timely transcripts on relevant committee hearings.

One step that you, as Speaker, can take is to require Committees to provide, to the public, transcripts, both preliminary and final, of committee hearings and activities in a timely manner. The Library of Congress Internet Site already has a section on Committee Reports (http://thomas.loc.gov/cp109/cp109query.html) which could be used. A collaborative enterprise, undertaken in concert with the majority leader from the other body, would send a clear message to the American people that the "old ways" of doing the people's business are no more. A Democratic Congress can find new ways, using the tools of this century and the principles dating to the founding of the party, to show the American people that it is listening, representative, and welcomes new measures to expand citizens knowledge and understanding of the legislative process.