Monday, July 20, 2009

Plain language requirement - maybe government should follow it first?

I've been reading the House version of the health care bill (socialized medicine bill) and wanted to mention this little paragraph on page 39:

(2) PLAIN LANGUAGE.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘plain language’’ means language that the intended audience, including individuals with limited English proficiency, can readily understand and use because that language is clean, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices of plain language writing.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the government commissioner in charge of overseeing the regulations has this requirement:

"(3) GUIDANCE.—The Commissioner shall develop and issue guidance on best practices of plain language writing."

I guess that if the government doesn't tell us what 'plain language' is, we just don't know.

Now if only they'd only followed their own requirement in writing the bill in the first place.....

1 comment:

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Maggie,

Did you forget?

Congress always exempts themselves from any rules that they pass...

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