The need to get involved with government legislation
To begin it must be understood that government legislation at all levels impact our lives, the lives of our families and our country. This is a fact but today from what can be understood most voters never get involved with government legislation even though it affects everything we do. Topics like taxes, the environment, regulations created as a result of legislation the list goes on and on. Why does this happen? The answer has much to do with our busy lives leaving little time for much else than doing what we need to do each day.
Granted there is much legislation from all levels processed each year and it is difficult if not impossible to follow all of them. Sometimes issues are so important that the media covers legislation being processed including the debates on the topic and content being proposed. While it is great that the media covers some of the important issues but others leave us in the dark as to what Congress in particular is doing. We may not know the impact of some legislation until the requirements affects us, our family or our country.
I have come to realize more so today what impact we as voters can have on legislation being created by those who we have elected to represent us. To be an informed voter we must understand the actions being taken by those we have elected and whether we agree with their decisions. This can involve legislation they create or co-create to the votes they make on legislation being presented for consideration.
The quantity of legislation being created each year just at the federal government level numbers in the thousands. While some have little if any impact on our lives others directly impact our daily activities especially if we have a business. Another reason for getting involved is the secrecy which seems to exist in Congress in negotiating content on critical legislation. While I somewhat understand the need in some respects especially associated with national security other discussions need to be open so the public can see who is making an effort to come to some agreement.
I understand the importance of legislation at the federal government level and the issues facing our society such as our economic and unemployment situations. Difficult decisions must be made for which we may not always agree but this is why we have chosen those to represent us. It is up to us to help those we have elected to make the right decisions or at least give them our opinion on issues which we feel are important. Lobbyists are letting our elected officials know how they feel and we need to lessen the impact by letting our elected officials know how we feel. Government is supposed to work for us not us for the government. We have come to the point where many of us feel we are working for the government not them for us. This needs to change and if enough of us get involved with legislation being processed we can make a difference.
We as individuals must make our choices as to what issues are important to us and our families and access both the Senate and House of Representatives websites or other organizations which track legislative actions. In some cases you can establish requirements to keep up with actions on specific legislation. It is an easy way to keep up with decisions being made on critical issues and I have found it to be a great resource. One example is Govetrack.com. Let us make a commitment to keep abreast of legislative actions and inform our elected officials of our feelings on the topics at hand.
