Essential Estrogen

Congressman Bruce Braley introduced a piece of legislation this morning that would require the federal government to write documents in simple, easy-to-understand language.

The Plain Language in Government Communications Act -- HR 3584 -- is a bipartisan bill that targets tax returns, federal college aid applications and Veterans Administration forms. Basically, any form, publication and publicly distributed document must be provided in a "clear, concise, well-organized" manner that follows the best practices of plain language writing. A complete description of the Federal Plain Language Guidelines is available online. There are also examples of before-and-after applications of the initiative.

"Anyone who's done their own taxes knows the headache of trying to understand pages and pages of confusing forms and instructions," said Braley, who represents Iowa's 1st District. "There is no reason why the federal government can't write these forms and other public documents in a way we can all understand.

"Writing government documents in plain language will increase government accountability and will save Americans time and money. Plain, straightforward language makes it easy for taxpayers to understand what the federal government is doing and what services it is offering."

The bill has been referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.