NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

Energy and Commerce Committee’s Web Site Wins 2007 Silver Mouse Award

618 House and Senate Web Sites Evaluated for 2007 Gold Mouse Report

Washington, D.C. – The Web site of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce was honored today by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF). The site, http://energycommerce.house.gov, was one of only 104 Web sites commended in The 2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill. To identify the award winners, CMF analyzed 618 congressional Web sites, including those of all Senate and House Members, committees (both majority and minority sites), and official leadership sites. In 2007, CMF awarded 36 Gold, 34 Silver, and 34 Bronze Mouse Awards.

“The Energy and Commerce Committee’s Web site plays a key role in providing public access to important information and documents,” said Rep. John D. Dingell, the Chairman of the Committee. “I’m proud of the work the staff has done to ensure the site is user friendly and as up-to-date as possible.”

The 2007 Gold Mouse Report and Awards are part of the “Connecting to Congress” research project, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. For this project, CMF partnered with researchers from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, University of California-Riverside and Ohio State University to study how Congress can use the Internet to promote greater participation in the legislative process.

Web sites were graded on how well they incorporate five basic building blocks that extensive research identified as critical for effectiveness: audience, content, usability, interactivity, and innovation. Providing access to information is a priority for Chairman Dingell. Live and archived webcasts of the hearings, witness testimony, press releases, letters and responses, and detailed oversight documents are all available on the Committee’s web site.

“As the Committee with jurisdiction over telecommunications issues, it is important that the Committee on Energy and Commerce set an example of effective use of the Internet,” Dingell said. “I am pleased to see the Committee’s Web site recognized as among the best in Congress.”

A full copy of the report, the 2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill, is available on the Congressional Management Foundation’s Web site at www.cmfweb.org.

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