OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm Browse Popular ideas

Leadership and oversight at the highest levels of the federal government will be necessary for the Open Government Directive to succeed. The President’s Management Council, which is made up of the Deputy Secretaries of all major agencies, should oversee the implementation of the directive to ensure that the entire federal government is working together to manage the implementation of the directive. All agencies should ...more »

Give citizens two weeks to review laws - especially spending bills - before Congress votes on the bills.

Do not pretend that spending bills of 100s of billions of dollars have to be signed immediately - before anyone ever reads them.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Try that for a change!

Currently, congress can pass any law they want, constitutional or not, and unless you can show personal damages, you cannot challenge it. This is because the courts have declared they don't have time. To clean up our laws, including the lack of expiration dates on outdated laws, and to remove absurdly unconstitutional provisions and reactionary moments of confusion, there should be a special court for this purpose. ...more »

How about this...we should have people run the government instead of the government running the people(into the groung and to death).

Institute term limits for all members of Congress, either 4 or 5 Max 4 yr terms. Also institute a vesting policy where they must serve 2 full terms to be eligible for retirement pay. Currently Congress people (politically correct bs) care more about their power than what is best for the people of the United States. If we limit the time they can spend in office, maybe they will focus on us, the people, instead of building ...more »

A website addressing proposed policy changes allowing for public vote & comment. Such a site should be developed & improved with the idea of becoming a binding mechanism for modifying & implementing policy.

I've heard ideas of how to add additional parties to our system. Right now due to our laws people don't vote for folks outside of Dems or Repubs cause if they do the person they REALLY don't like will be elected. So, I heard a way where if the person you select doesn't get X % of the vote then you can vote for a backup candidate.

Our Congress should have limits on terms so that regular people who are patriotic and connected to the people that they represent get a chance to serve. No one should be able to make a career out of being in Congress. Each law that is made should be only related to a single subject and not have unrelated items attached to it. If it cannot be typed on ten pages, its too long. Congress should not be a law factory. ...more »

On all federal forms, invite user input on what isn't clear, how to simplify, how to make use easier, simpler, ...

Federal agencies typically write national emergency plans and only later obtain public comment. Often, the public is hindered in commenting because they have not been educated about the basics of emergency planning and coordination. Develop a one-semester emergency planning curriculum that schools can present to high school students (with input from state and local planners) that introduces basic concepts of individual, ...more »

Library of Congress THOMAS site: http://thomas.loc.gov/

http://www.opencongress.org/