Mark Hannah has a thoughtful post about how the Obama administration and Congress are adopting what he terms “Direct to Constituent” communications --  a governing variation of the corporate “direct to consumer” communications --   letting government officials bypass filters such as the press. It has fascinating possibilities and not just for government.

Of course one of the best examples of this was candidate Obama’s collection of 13 million email addresses enabling that political operation to communicate with a very broad audience without the mediation of the press. As it moves forward there's been quite a lot written about how that operation continues within the DNC to advance the administration's agenda.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on this trend: looking at which politicians in Congress and which agency heads embrace this new platform, who understands this new trend and who truly gets it as a two-way opportunity. So far, it has been largely a one-way conversation. (To wit Obama's Saturday You-Tube Fireside Chats)

At Sunlight we keep a close eye on the active Twitters like U.S. Rep. John Culberson and engage with them as they tell the story of the day to day passage of legislation. It's a story the press would never tell but it has the ring of authenticity and immediacy that we come to expect on the Web.

Ben Pershing at the Washington Post writes, "If a party stages a protest on the House floor but no one can see or hear it, does it make a sound?" Yes, it makes a tweet.

After adjourning for the annual summer recess, House Republicans took to the floor to protest the failure of the House to hold a vote to allow offshore drilling. Since the protest happened after adjournment was announced, the House cameras and lights were turned off. While Republicans shouted from the floor and journalists hurried to see what was happening, GOP Rep. John Culberson was tweeting away the happenings from the floor. Culberson even let some other lawmakers take over his account including Roy Blunt, Adam Putnam, John Shimkus, Tom Price, Ted Poe, Virginia Foxx, and John Shadegg. Culberson's tweets marked yet another moment where Twitter broke a story before it could make it to the news.

Culberson is also Qiking the event. Pretty cool stuff.

But, Twitter isn't the only angle to this story. These lawmakers aren't simply taking to the floor to demand help for gas consumers, they are pushing a central facet of the oil industry's legislative agenda: offshore drilling. Just yesterday it was announced that, yet again, ExxonMobil broke the record for largest quarterly profit pulling in $11.7 Billion.

And as many can predict, the oil industry is very liberal in its contributions to the campaigns of congressmen who support their agenda. Let's start with the lawmakers who are mentioned as on the floor by press accounts and Rep. Culberson's tweets:

Career Contributions from Oil & Gas Companies.

Brady, Kevin (R-TX)	$369,797
Blunt, Roy (R-MO)	$362,248
Culberson, John (R-TX)	$301,961
Boehner, John (R-OH)	$185,000
Shimkus, John (R-IL)	$184,161
Pence, Mike (R-IN)	$150,950
Poe, Ted (R-TX)	$128,650
Shadegg, John (R-AZ)	$119,495
Putnam, Adam H (R-FL)	$70,300
Foxx, Virginia (R-NC)	$47,100
Sali, William T (R-ID)	$43,000
Price, Tom (R-GA)	$24,500

Source: Open Secrets

That's a lot of money on the floor of the House right now.

This afternoon, Rep. John Culberson and I had a twitterfest (am I making up terms here?) about the need for lawmakers (minimally)  to have the time to read legislation before they have to vote on it. (Sunlight thinks if bills and amendments were actually posted online in advance of votes citizens would have an opportunity to get on the act too.

The back and forth started a day ago after Rep. Culbeson complained earlier that the Democrats were bringing up bills before anyone had a chance to read them

Here's the tweetalogue.

EllnMllr @johnculberson Support Rep Baird's H. Res 504. http://tinyurl.com/583dkr There are 13 bipartisan co-sponsors. about 3 hours ago from web in reply to johnculberson

johnculberson @EllnMllr I am also going to ask my Repub colleagues to support 72 hr rule about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

Johnculberson @EllnMllr Right now is a perfect example of how desperately America needs you and others through the Internet to shine sunlight on Congress about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Please eblast your members your followers and let them know their Congressmen are being asked to approve $185 Bill in War spending about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr in a floor vote before 6pm on a 184 pg $185 b bill that was written at 2:37pm and filed publicly about the same time - outrage! about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Here is where floor bills 1st appear: www.rules.house.gov/. Click on war bill: HOUSE AMENDMENT TO SENATE AMENDMENT 2 (H.R. 2642) about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Now read the bottom of each page for time stamp. June 19 2:37pm means the Legis Council finished writing the bill today at 2:37pm! about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

johnculberson @EllnMllr Remember - no comm hearing, no amendments, no time for we the people to read it on internet or anywhere else; 1 hour debate & vote about 2 hours ago from web in reply to EllnMllr

Rep. John Culberson is member of Congress who understands what's happening on the Web today. He's a congressman who is on twitter, and he uses the medium effectively. That is, he does not use twitter just as a vehicle to push blog posts (or has a staffer tweet for him), but engages in conversations and gives a great glimpse on his daily activities.

It's refreshing to see a member of Congress who personally tweets updates about his work as a legislator, often from the House Floor. We love that he talks specifically about bills being considered in real time so we know how he is going to vote on a pending bill and why.

He agrees that we need more transparency about the work of Congress and thinks "the darkest and deepest hole in Congress" is the House floor. I learned that after @johnculberson engaged in an twitter conversation with Sunlight's Communications Director @stereogab. She had tweeted about the APME earmarks series, to which he replied that he was one of the first members of Congress to disclose his earmark requests on his Web site.

He later brought up many good points highlighting how there ought to be more transparency on the House Floor, stating:

Major bills like Farm Bill, Iraq War funding bill were written in total secrecy by a handful of people and then filed the night before floor vote w no comm hearing, and then floor amendments are either prohibited or limited...Why not create a Sunshine Index for every day the House is in session? For every bill - how much time between bill filing and floor debate? Was there a Comm hearing? Amendments allowed in comm or on floor? How many? How much debate time? How many pages long is the bill? How much money does it spend? This is where Democracy is being killed every day - on the floor.

We've been working on spreading Sunlight on the House and are pleased that one of the collaborators on the Open House Google Group created the House Floor twitter account based on updates on the Web site of the Clerk of the House. But, Rep. Culberson is onto something. More needs to be done. Bills certainly should not be written in secret. We even think all bills should be posted online for 72 hours before they voted on. There's currently a House resolution that would require that. Perhaps Rep. Culberson would want to support that resolution? UPDATE: Rep. Tim Ryan is also tweeting from the House Floor! Follow him @timryan