Americans will increasingly be empowered to participate in government if they see that their ideas are being considered. When the public believes that they are being heard, they increasingly will involve themselves in the democratic process. The advent of web 2.0 technologies, like Twitter and Facebook, has facilitated new ways to foster this involvement. The existence, however, of these new mediums is not enough to realize the goal of participatory government. It is necessary for elected officials to make use of this new form of citizen input so that it is heard and utilized.

Using a new technique, called Crowdsourcing, to redesign my website was an attempt to utilize these new mediums and give voice to people’s ideas. Now more than ever, government websites serve as a critical interface between the public and policy-makers. The design of a Congressional website represents a major endeavor: A regularly updated website, with easily accessible information, plays a critical role in informing the public. So I thought, why not allow constituents to creatively show me exactly what they want? Read the rest of this entry »

With more than 270 million subscribers, cell phones are a vital means of communications for the vast majority of Americans. The enormous growth in the use of cell phones means that maintaining competition in this industry is more important than ever.

In recent years, however, consolidation has left the cell phone industry highly concentrated. Four national carriers now control over 90% of the cell phone market. AT&T and Verizon combine to have a market share of 60%. Nowhere is the changed market for cell phones more noticeable than in text message service. In 2008, more than one trillion text messages were sent, more than triple the number just two years before. As their popularity has grown, so has the price charged on a per message basis.

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To fortify the nation’s nuclear facilities and strengthen national security as a whole, we must recruit and train more nuclear forensic scientists.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) echoed this sentiment in a recent report entitled Nuclear Forensics: Comprehensive Interagency Plan Needed to Address Human Capital Issues. Validating House conviction, the GAO advised that success in this endeavor requires recruiting and better educating the nation’s scientists in nuclear forensics. Read the rest of this entry »

This week, the D.C. Circuit Court delivered great news for the millions of Americans living in apartments and condominiums.  The Court upheld key FCC policy that ensures vigorous video and broadband competition for consumers who reside in multiple dwelling units (MDUs).  This positive ruling affirms an FCC order previously issued to end the practice of cable companies signing exclusive video service contracts for MDUs – a practice that limited choice and competition for individual consumers.

Now, thanks to this pro-competitive policy, Americans across the nation will be able to enjoy the unbridled benefits of enhanced choices and innovative services.  And for the high numbers of minorities and seniors on fixed incomes who live in these residences, improved choices and competitive prices for video and high-speed services are particularly invaluable.  Read the rest of this entry »

Buried in the telephone bills of many Americans is a federal excise tax that was implemented in 1898 to help fund the Spanish-American War. That war ended on December 10, 1898 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, but this 3 percent telephone tax still lives on 111 years later.

Republican Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson of Pennsylvania has joined with me in sponsoring legislation — H.R. 2203 — to repeal this tax on local telephone service, toll telephone service, and teletype exchange service for the disabled. Ironically, the tax was enacted as a tax on the wealthy because in the late 1800s having a telephone was considered a “luxury,” but actually it is particularly regressive and unfair because it targets those citizens who can least afford it.

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I appreciate the opportunity to post on The Detroit News’ Politics Blog. While I’m not able to respond to every question and comment, I am reading them and will try to respond to some. Many comments on my last post were about nuclear energy, so here’s why and how I became a strong advocate for nuclear power.

If you’d told me 10 years ago we ought to produce electricity with nuclear power, my response would have been “no way.” The escalating energy crisis our nation is facing, however, prompted a hard look at our energy needs and future options. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning, among the sea of 30,000 people participating in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll were a small band of parents and their children whose arrival on the White House lawn signaled a quiet, but significant, change in the way our country, and our president, sees the American family. For the first time, families including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were officially invited, and welcomed, to participate in the First Family’s celebration.

At 9:30 this morning, several of those families gathered with me at the offices of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) as they prepared to head to the White House.  The children among the group, who ranged in age from 1 to 13 years old, were simply excited to be part of this festive day in the nation’s capital.  But the parents, including a gay dad and his 6-year-old son, a lesbian mom and her 13-year –old, and two mothers and their children’s grandmother, understood all too well the change that their event tickets, given to PFLAG by White House staff, represented. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim recently asked readers of his blog to help provide me with guidance on the best way to make official legislative databases available to the developer community. The question, which also made its way onto Slashdot, led to a wealth of proposals, some of which I am considering developing into new legislation. Following on the success of that initial conversation, I’d like to ask for your guidance once again.

How can Congress take advantage of web 2.0 technologies to transform the relationship between citizens and government? Instead of viewing the public as a customer for services, I believe that we should empower citizens to become our partners in shaping the future of our nation. Read the rest of this entry »

The layoffs announced by Caterpillar today proves the promises that CAT would not proceed with planned layoffs and rehire workers if the so-called economic stimulus plan passed were inaccurate.

Congress did pass the stimulus bill and the President got everything he wanted from Congress. Yet, these additional layoffs confirm CAT workers were misused by the Administration as justification for the stimulus bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Every day the men and women of the United States military and their families are making sacrifices as they serve our country. We have an obligation to honor that sacrifice, which is why I strongly believe we must ensure our military families are not excluded from critical nutrition programs if a family member is deployed and begins to receive combat pay.

The bill I have introduced with two of my colleagues would exclude combat pay from income used to determine a family’s eligibility for programs such as the school lunch and breakfast programs, Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program, or day care assistance, if a family member is deployed to a combat zone. Passing this legislation would ensure military families will not lose access to these critical programs when a loved one is called to the front lines of battle. Read the rest of this entry »