Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

            I want to thank the Chairman for moving this bill, which I introduced late last year.  This sensible bill has bipartisan support from many members of this Committee.  Senators McCaskill, Carper, Levin, Obama, Clinton, Tester, Voinovich, Collins, and Cochran are cosponsors. 

            The Plain Language in Government Communications Act is a common sense, good government measure.  The bill would require federal agencies to write documents released to the public in plain language - that is, language which is clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices of plain language writing. 

            The American people deserve an open and transparent government.  Getting rid of complicated, bureaucratic language so people can understand more easily how the government operates and what it requires of them is an important step in the right direction.  Indeed, as Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox testified at a February 26, 2008, hearing on the House companion Plain Language bill (H.R. 3548), "Clarity in spelling out a citizen's obligations is one of the fundamental requirements of the rule of law."

            Requiring the government to write public documents clearly will make our constituents' lives easier.  Veterans, taxpayers, senior citizens, and others need to be able to understand government letters, instructions, and forms to receive benefits and services to which they are entitled.  They should not have to spend hours parsing unnecessarily complicated language. 

            A wide variety of organizations support the Plain Language bill for precisely this reason - they receive many complaints from members who are frustrated with complicated federal documents.  The AARP, Disabled American Veterans, the National Small Business Association, Women Impacting Public Policy, the American Nurses Association, the American Library Association, and other organizations have called on Congress to pass this bill.

            Finally, the government also would spend less money on answering customer service questions and responding to paperwork errors if government documents were written more clearly.  States that have rewritten form letters in plain language receive significantly fewer telephone customer service questions, allowing their staff to focus on their primary duties. 

            I thank my colleagues for supporting this measure. 

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