(cross posted from the Open House Project blog) 

Something pretty exciting is happening over at honda.house.gov; (Congressman Mike Honda’s Web site). They have posted their new education related legislation on the site, along with justifications, background, endorsements, and even the ability to leave public comments through the blog area of the site.

This approach to introducing and building support for legislation recognizes the importance of real public input and evaluation, and gives the public the tools they need to understand what legislation is really about: an explanation, a place to link to, a summary, even a list of institutional support.

We’re excited to see more legislative initiatives recognize the potential of public engagement online, and also to see an OpenCongress.org widget being used to help track the legislative details.

There’s a tipping point somewhere ahead, where public expectations lead to advocacy and legislating functioning through the merits of arguments made in a public setting. We’re certainly not there yet, but small steps like publicmarkup.org, legislation 2.0, and now Rep. Honda’s online work are all steps in that direction.