Congressman Geoff Davis : Serving Kentucky's Fourth District

From GOP Leader Press Office

As House Republicans continue to battle Speaker Pelosi’s $1.3 trillion government takeover of health care, they’re using a new tool - Amplify.com - to engage the American people in a section-by-section dialogue scrutinizing all 1,990 pages of PelosiCare.  Republicans hope the new site - HealthCareTruth.Amplify.com - will provide the American people with an unfiltered online clearinghouse for emerging information about the Pelosi bill as Democrats attempt to bring the massive legislation to a vote.

The idea is simple.  As House Republicans pour pore through the Speaker’s health care monstrosity and uncover harmful provisions not being disclosed to the American people by the majority, Amplify allows House Republicans to clip specific portions and explain what they mean in plain English.

The best part is that this process isn’t a one-way street.  When visitors arrive at healthcaretruth.amplify.com they are able to easily leave their own comments on any portion, or share the content using Twitter, Facebook, Digg and other popular social tools.  The site, created by Reps. Bob Latta (R-OH), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and John Boehner (R-OH), is up and operating now.

This is hardly the first time this year that House Republicans have pressed for a more transparent and accountable Congress.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Congressional Republicans have been fighting for a series of reforms in Congress to “let the sun shine in” on the legislative process.  These reforms include a requirement that all bills be posted online for at least 72 hours before they are brought to a vote, and a requirement that committees post bills and amendments online within 24 hours after they are passed at the committee level, to prevent the majority from adding “phantom amendments” to bills in secret without a vote, as recently occurred with the health care bill in the Senate.  House Republicans have also called for the Speaker to open secretive health care negotiations to the public and to put cameras in the powerful Rules Committee - one of the few Congressional panels that still does its work behind closed doors.  These reforms are detailed at www.gopleader.gov/readthebill.

House Republicans hope the American people will engage their Representatives through Amplify and other new media tools to usher in a new era of unprecedented transparency and openness in the legislative process.  After all, Members of Congress work for the American people - not the other way around.