My kind of Congressman

From Patterico comes word of how Justin Amash uses Facebook to communicate with constituents.  And the rest of us as well.

Reposted in full (because it's worth it):

Maybe you already knew about this, but I learned about it for the first time over the holidays, and want to share it with you here. Rep. Justin Amash, a Tea Party fellow from Michigan, explains all his votes on Facebook. Every single one.

Here is an excerpt from Amash’s entry on the Ryan/Murray budget deal:

Instead of real compromise to reform the biggest budget items contributing to our $17 trillion debt—Social Security, military spending, and Medicare—the bill increases federal spending for special interests by tens of billions of dollars and pays for it by raising taxes on millions of Americans. It unwinds the bipartisan agreement from 2011 that capped spending at lower levels, blowing a $45 billion hole in the cap for 2014 and a nearly $20 billion hole for 2015. To help pay for it, you can expect to spend more on airline tickets, and younger military retirees can expect to see smaller cost of living adjustments, among other things.

Here’s another way to think about this budget deal: Imagine that you and your wife have a couple teenage kids and a big spending problem. You love buying stuff for your car, and she loves buying shoes. But you’re headed for bankruptcy, and the kids hope you’ll save up some money to help pay for college. You and your wife promise the kids you’ll compromise with each other. The two of you strike a deal: You won’t cut back on car stuff, and she won’t cut back on shoes (but you both promise that one day you will cut back). You shake hands and tell the kids the good news. Responsible parents, huh? That’s the compromise that happens every time in Washington, and that’s what we got with this budget deal.
It passed 332-94.

OK, that’s a solid explanation of a vote that everybody is familiar with. But what I think is even more interesting are Amash’s explanations of his votes on bills you never heard of. For example:

I voted no on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H R 1204, Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2013. The bill permanently codifies in statute an already existing federal advisory committee known as the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC). ASAC, which has been in existence off and on since 1989, has a charter instructing it to “examine areas of civil aviation security and develop recommendations for the improvement of civil aviation security methods, equipment, and procedures.” ASAC has been meeting semiannually since it was last re-established in mid-2011.

ASAC as it currently exists was established in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which formalized a process for establishing, operating, overseeing, and terminating advisory committees. Under FACA, advisory committees are intended to be established only when they are deemed essential and are to be terminated when they are no longer carrying out the purpose for which they were established. I see little benefit in permanently establishing this advisory committee in statute when it’s already performing its intended purpose. I support limited government; therefore, I favor allowing these types of federal advisory committees to dissolve when they begin to outlive their usefulness. The bill passed 411-3.

This kind of transparency not only helps fight the power of money in politics, by ensuring that votes have actual reasoning behind them, but it also gives voters a real insight into the day to day business of Congress. What are these bills they are constantly drafting and voting on? If you keep up with Amash’s Facebook page, you’ll know. Not only that, it looks to me like every post has a comment from Amash listing the roll call for the voting on the bill he just explained. For example, here is the vote on the Ryan/Murray budget deal. Want to see how your Congressman voted on a particular bill? Amash makes it easy.

I am going to do my level best to keep up with Amash’s Facebook page. He has explained well over 2000 votes. He says he makes it to every vote and explains every one. And he says he writes every entry. That is a laudable (if time consuming) thing to do. If you’re interested, keep up with Amash at this link: https://www.facebook.com/repjustinamash.

P.S. If you’re a Facebook person, you can always follow Patterico here. I hope to be more active on the Facebook thing if time permits.

That's the kind of open disclosure that we need from 534 more members of Congress.  And this serves his constituents more than just soundbites and "I voted for X".  Of course, he's making the assumption that his constituents are capable of understanding complex issues.  Good that he represents the Grand Rapids area rather than Detroit.

Where are the rest of the Justin Amashes out their in America?  Surely we can find them.  And support them.