The Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group, has been pushing hard for the past few years to force a vote on legislation that would compel Senate candidates to post their campaign finance reports electronically. Sunlight took its cause to Twitter this week by telling people to “tweet” their support for the idea to senators who can make it happen.
The new media tactic caught the attention of two Democratic senators, @clairecmc of Missouri and @Barbara_Boxer of California. Boxer noted that she co-sponsored a previous bill on the topic and will do so again. And Claire McCaskill wrote: “I’ve supported electronic filing of campaign reports for a long time. It’s embarrassing that we are not required to file electronically.”
“In less than 24 hours, two out of 15 of the senators on Twitter who had not co-sponsored are now cosponsors,” Blumenthal noted on Sunlight’s blog. “In terms of grassroots outreach that is an amazing turn around.”
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
- Why did the public lands bill fail in the House? According to @GOPLeader, it was a Second Amendment fight.
- @Senate_GOPs complained that labor unions turned a Senate hearing on “card check” into pep rally.
- @DeanHeller wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., about card check. “It could cost us 600,000 jobs by end of 2010.”
- @edlabordems posted videos from today’s hearing about lost educational opportunities in alternative settings.
- @SenJohnMcCain found a Washington Post article on Democratic thoughts about taxing health benefits “very interesting.” President Obama scoffed at the idea in the 2008 presidential campaign.
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: California, Missouri, Gun Rights, Politics, Health, Labor, Technology, Education, Taxes, Natural Resources, Claire McCaskill, Hill Tweet News, Barbara Boxer
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The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing today on “lost educational opportunities.” Watch video clips of the session:
Categories: Education
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President Obama’s decision to reverse U.S. policy on embryonic stem-cell research triggered a round of policy tweets from lawmakers both for and against the idea.
Obama lifted restrictions on the research and issued a presidential memorandum designed to insulate scientists from political interference. @LEETERRYNE said embryonic stem-cell research is “inappropriate and immoral” and added that other stem-cell research is a viable option. @SenatorMenendez countered that Obama’s action signals a “new era of hope.”
Others tweeting on the topic included @GOPLeader, @RepMaryFallin, @bobinglis and @RepTomPrice.
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: California, Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Utah, Health, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Menendez, Education, Taxes, John Boehner, Social Policy, Tom Price, Claire McCaskill, Hill Tweet News, Tom Latham, Jason Chaffetz, Bob Inglis
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Conservative policy analyst Dan Holler recaps the debates over school choice for children in the District of Columbia and over proposed taxes on energy production in the latest episode of the Heritage Foundation program “This Week In Washington.”
Categories: Energy, Education, Taxes
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AirCongress today began tracking the best “tweets” that members of Congress post to Twitter, a mini-blog service that limits posts to 140 characters. Some of the AirCongress posts will be word-for-word “retweets” of what the lawmakers wrote (the abbreviation for a retweet is RT); others will summarize the content of one or more tweets on the same subject.
This new feature is called “Hill Tweet News,” or HTN for short.
As part of the service, each day at AirCongress.com I will post a sample of the latest tweets from @AirCongress and a button so readers can subscribe to @AirCongress in order to access the full version of HTN via Twitter.
Here are the samples from today’s first edition of the new weekday feature:
@askgeorge is dining with Obama on Wednesday and soliciting questions. Topics — economy, health care, education.
RT @TomCoburn Was just shut out from offering amendments on the Floor to the omnibus.
RT No. 1 pork project for today is $951,500 for Sustainable Las Vegas. See @SenJohnMcCain for the other nine.
Click the button below to subscribe to “Hill Tweet News” and get access to the other news and information available through @AirCongress, including links to the YouTube channels for members of Congress.
It’s free for the first week, and after that, the introductory rate is only $3 a month. But subscribe now before the fee increases!
Categories: AirCongress, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Health, Tom Coburn, Sen. John McCain, Budget, Education, Economy, George Miller, Hill Tweet News
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