What is your Senator doing today?

by mike

A new trend has started in Washington and I like it. Although technically it might have started in Montana.

During the elections in 2006, Jon Tester (D) ran with one unusual and new election promise in his campaign. If elected he would blog his schedule daily of the meetings he attended, the people he met with, and even his travel schedule between Montana and Washington. His goal was transparency and I think he got it.

I never really know what my representatives are doing. I just get a warm and fuzzy feeling that they are working on my behalf, acting in my best interests, and meeting with the movers and shakers they need to to take care of Colorado. Not that I have expended a great deal of effort or spent every night watching the Congress channels. I suppose if it makes the newsprint or the headline news then I catch it. But those are the big stories and not necessarily the critical steps of what happens every day.

I love this idea. I want to have an easy window where I can learn what is going on. Who is influencing or meeting with our voice in government. Wikipedia describes the United States as an “the longest-surviving extant constitutional republic, with the oldest wholly written constitution in the world”. In this structure our representatives are our voice. We don’t vote on every issue individually. Our representatives speak, vote, meet, discuss, and act on our behalf. Now isn’t nice to know that we might have the transparency to see what exactly they are doing and with who. Maybe the next step will be a link on the actual hearing to know what was discussed. Not all of us want to watch 24 hours of cspan daily. But if there is an issue that I really care about I would love to click straight to a video feed of the session. Knowing someone is in a session is one thing, knowing what stance they took and how they approached the issue is a more valuable step. I am assuming these are public hearings anyway so all this does is increase the ease of information flow.

This blog isn’t about politics. It’s really about Denver, new ideas, food, urban design, urban living, and sometimes just something fun. This is an idea I like and part of our Urban life. Let’s hope this catches on. And feel free to share this story and spread the word. We might just get it to happen sooner.

Here is the CNN blurb and here is the link to the article.

Tester aims for Senate transparency online

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Whether it’s a visit to the gym, a meeting with the founder of the Montana Meth Project, or an interview with Wolf Blitzer, staff for freshman Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, post his entire schedule online each workday — a Senate first.

A spokesman says Tester pledged to do this early in his 2006 campaign out of a “desire for transparency.” The Senator’s schedule reflects meetings with visiting Montanans, committee colleagues, as well as the occasional lobbyist. The information “gives people an opportunity to see with whom [Tester] is meeting, and if they represent the opposite point of view, they can also request a meeting,” said the spokesman.

The Sunlight Foundation — a group working for greater government transparency — has been pushing for more online disclosures of this kind. Last fall, the group offered members of the public up to $1000 cash if they could persuade a member of Congress or a candidate to post their schedule on the web. No sitting member said yes, but Sunlight paid out $22,750 after 93 candidates agreed. Only one actually got elected: Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, whose schedule is now posted daily online.

Tester’s efforts met some early hiccups: in the first few days before his Web site was fully operational his disclosures amounted to “a piece of paper taped to [his office] door” said his spokesman. The Senator’s schedule is now available at the end of each business day at his Senate Web site.

– CNN Internet Reporter Abbi Tatton

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