Whip Hoyer Announces House Democrats’ Adoption of New Online

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Whip Hoyer Announces House Democrats’ Adoption of New Online Tool to Hear From
Citizens and Organizations



WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) announced today that House Democrats have begun using open tools on POPVOX.com that enable citizens and organizations to publically weigh in on specific legislation before Congress. Whip Hoyer issued the following statement:
“I believe that it is important for Congress to adopt new technologies that advance our constitutional mission of communicating with our constituents. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have significantly transformed how Americans share information, and most Members of Congress have adopted these technologies resulting in improved constituent communications. Government initiatives like President Obama’s Data.gov and ‘We the People’ also use new web technologies to advance the important goals of government transparency, accountability, and participation of the people.
“POPVOX is an innovative, nonpartisan website that provides citizens and organizations across the country a new forum to publically speak out on specific legislation that is before Congress. Today, we are recognizing that innovation by ensuring that when a citizen or organization takes a position publically on a bill, that position will be displayed to House Democrats and their staff.”
Democratic Whip Hoyer’s office manages DemCom, the official intranet for House Democratic staff, which has been in use for four years and is used regularly by over 2,000 House Democratic staffers. DemCom hosts all internal documents within the Democratic Caucus including “Dear Colleague” Member letters, Leadership fact sheets and talking points, all organized by specific legislation.
Beginning today, DemCom will dynamically pull all organization position papers on POPVOX, including the 3,700 position letters currently on the site, as well as those added in the future. In addition, DemCom now prominently displays the current public sentiment as registered on POPVOX for all bills currently before Congress.