Plain Writing Initiative

Introduction

The Plain Writing Act of 2010 requires federal agencies to write "clear Government communication that the public can understand and use." President Obama also emphasized the importance of establishing "a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration" in his January 21, 2009, Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government. Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board is committed to writing new documents in plain language by October 2011, using the Federal Plain Language Guidelines.

We need your help to comply with this Act! Let us know if you have trouble understanding our documents or the pages on our website:

We're training our employees and have strengthened our oversight process. We will use plain language in any document that:

• is necessary for obtaining any federal government benefit or service or filing taxes;
• provides information about any federal government benefit or service; or
• explains to the public how to comply with a requirement that the federal government administers or enforces.

Our Public Affairs office is overseeing this initiative. Please let them know if we haven't written a document in plain language by email at opa@rrb.gov.

We are required to report our progress and compliance with the Act. Our annual compliance reports are posted below.

Reports

Link	File Size	No. Pgs
2013 Compliance Report	56kb	4
2014 Compliance Report	180kb	4
2015 Compliance Report	161kb	3
2016 Compliance Report	61kb	2

To view and download PDF documents, you need the free Acrobat Reader . We recommend using the latest version.

Viewers with visual disabilities can go to Adobe's Access Website for tools and information that will help make PDF files accessible.