Media coverage is all over the health care reform bill(s). But, there are other pieces of legislation being passed, and some of them, like the Braley Plain Language Act (HR 946) might actually benefit all literate citizens without controversy.

“The Plain Language Act requires the federal government to write all new publications, forms, and publicly distributed documents in a “clear, concise, well-organized” manner that follows the best practices of plain language writing.”

As a corporate librarian who files financial documents, I was particularly interested in the section titled “Clarity in Financial Documents”, and the many external links accompanying the information. I think that at some point during the last few decades, businesses (and local government, too) began to mimic the fancy, big-government dialect, so hopefully this initiative to speak more better will help taxpayers spend more better, too.