House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee’s Republican website has been named the winner of a Gold Mouse award by the Congressional Management Foundation, an honor presented to the best websites in Congress. 

“In this era of rapidly evolving technology and unprecedented online citizen engagement, congressional websites play a central role in our efforts to listen to and effectively represent the American people,” said Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the panel’s top Republican. “Republicans on the Education and Labor Committee have made online communications a top priority, and we’re honored to receive this award.” 

The committee’s website features detailed information on a range of education and workplace-related issues, offering users easy access to public statements and news articles, legislative summaries, event schedules, hearing information, committee voting records, information on the panel’s Members, and a host of other tools and resources. In addition, the Education and Labor Committee Republican website connects users to online social media including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. 

“Congressional websites have the potential to serve as virtual offices, giving the public real-time access to information about how their representatives are serving them here in the nation’s capital,” said Kline. “Education and Labor Committee Republicans are constantly striving to improve our online communications, and we applaud the Congressional Management Foundation for helping spur innovation and creativity in how Congress communicates with the American people through the Web.” 

NOTE: The following information regarding the Gold Mouse Awards is provided courtesy of the Congressional Management Foundation. 

The 111^th Congress Gold Mouse Awards are part of CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union, which seeks to improve the quality of communication between Members and their constituents. For this project CMF partnered with researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, University of California–Riverside, and the Ohio State University to study how Members of Congress can use the Internet to improve communications with their constituents and to promote greater participation in the legislative process.  

Web sites were graded on how well they incorporate five core principles that CMF identified through extensive research as critical for effectiveness:  know your audience, provide timely and targeted content that meets their needs, make the site easy to use, foster interaction both on and offline, and add value through innovation.  

Using these core principles, an evaluation framework was developed by CMF and their research partners, which would be fair and objective while still taking into account important qualitative factors that affect a visitor's experience on a Web site.    

The 111^th Congress Gold Mouse Project report, a full listing winners, and other comparative data is available on CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union Web site at www.pmpu.org.  

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