Legislation Made Available for Comment on White House Web Site
It finally looks like the Obama Administration has made good on a campaign promise: allowing for public comment on non-emergency pieces of legislation before the president
signs them. While the public was overlooked last week when President Obama signed the S. 181 — the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, it looks like the president will allow for public comment on the SCHIP legislation that passed both houses last week.
I’m both excited and disappointed.
I’m very happy that President Obama has made followed through on a campaign promise — something that is all too often not the case with politicians these days. While some people were upset and nervous that the public was overlooked with the Ledbetter Act, it seems that the president will finally take comments on pieces of legislation.
But he can do more. Upon visiting the Web site to comment on SCHIP, one is presented with a lot of white space and simple comment form that probably sends e-mails to the bottom of some junior staffer’s inbox. What President Obama’s Web team — led by Macon Phillips — needs to do is turn that white space into a blog-like comments area. I’m talking about something similar to the discussion areas featured on Change.gov – so public comments truly are public comments. In doing that, new ideas can be hatched, ordinary Americans would connect with one another and the public would truly feel connected to the White House like never before.
Regardless, Obama and his team deserve kudos for already entering uncharted territory with the White House Web site less than two weeks after he took office. Imagine what surprises we’ll see in the months to come.
