Congressman Bachus must have let one of his grandkids near the computer. The House Committee on Financial Services, of which Congressman Bachus is the chairman, has jumped into the world of social media. They have a Twitter feed, a YouTube Channel, a Facebook page and a blog: The Bottom Line.
Even though the SEC has not yet come out with its final whistleblower rule, the committee has set up its own whistle blower form. They have a comment box so you can send comments about legislation.
As for the blog,
“We will bring to your attention what we think is important and interesting. We will post what we’re reading and what we’re thinking. We will post short reaction pieces and longer thought pieces. We will blog about ideas and policies that we support and that we don’t support. We will try to entertain. Most importantly, we will try to engage our readers.”
It’s a nice, although extremely partisan, attempt to provide more information. I’m all for open government and an open discussion of the issues. Maybe using these communication channel will help bring more openness. Maybe they will just bring more grandstanding and partisan bickering.
One of the features on the committee’s website is Collateral Damage: the real impact of the Democrat’s bailout bill. I get the sense that the website is more about political propaganda than open government.
Sources:
- The House Financial Services Committee Starts A Blog, Wants To Entertain You in the NYtimes.com DealBreaker
- Twitter feed for the Financial Services Republicans
- YouTube Channel for the Financial Services Republicans
- Facebook page for the Financial Services Republicans
- The Bottom Line – The blog of the House Committee on Financial Services
