Hoyer’s Proposals for Government Reform
US Rep. Steny H. Hoyer recently delivered a speech on government reform and making government more responsive, representative, and effective for the people it serves.
The speech, hosted by End Citizens United Action Fund, discussed specific proposals from House Democrats to overhaul the campaign finance system, renew Congress’s oversight role, restore voting rights, engage in national redistricting reform, strengthen ethics standards, and modernize government technology.
“If entrusted with the Democratic majority, I believe all of these items should be packaged into one reform bill, along with House rules changes to make Congress work more effectively, and addressed in the opening days of the next Congress. By doing so, we can renew the American people’s trust in government, which is critical to tackling our other priorities of expanding economic opportunity, lowering health care and prescription drug costs, and raising wages by rebuilding America,” the congressman said.
Here is an excerpt of the congressman’s speech:
“One of the best ways to make government work ‘for the people’ is to improve the way Americans connect with their members of Congress and with government agencies. Americans interact with businesses and organizations seamlessly online, but government technology is stuck a generation in the past. That’s why I’ve been working to modernize the way House Democrats use technology. It’s why I launched the ‘Whip Watch’ iPhone app and updated the internal system by which House Democratic staff can track legislation and share best practices.
“I also partnered with the Republican leader to pass the bipartisan Modernizing Government Technology Act, which will facilitate major system upgrades. But we need to do more. We ought to re-establish the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and launch a new Congressional Digital Service that can put more data online for the public and develop a new platform for Americans to communicate with their representatives. The House ought to have a chief data officer and a chief transparency officer. And, as Rep. [Mike] Quigley [D-IL] has advocated, we ought to require that unclassified reports sent to Congress by federal agencies be posted online.”
Find the full text of Congressman Hoyer’s speech here.
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For more information about House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, visit his Leader member page.
