DES MOINES, IOWA (November 18, 2019) — Representative Dave Loebsack will release the 2019 Federal Plain-Language Report Card — which grades federal agencies on their writing — on a media conference call on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at 12:30PM Eastern Time.
In 2010, Congress passed the Plain-Writing Act to ensure that people can understand the information they receive from federal agencies. Since 2012, the Center for Plain Language has issued a yearly report-card evaluating how well agencies follow this law. Agencies earn grades between A and F, on both how well their organizations comply with the law (staffing, training, and reporting) and in the writing they produce.
This year the Center evaluated two online pages from each federal agency:
- The most-visited page, including pages for common needs (like passport forms and Social Security) and of keen public interest (like auto recalls and sex-offenders databases).
- An urgent help page, selected from top .gov pages in Google search results for urgent queries (like, “Help, hurricane is coming,” and “Help, veteran thinking about suicide”).
On Tuesday, Rep Loebsack will reveal which federal pages make government easy to understand and use, as well as which ones are still filled with jargon, acronyms, and self-promotion.
RSVP to nandrews@centerforplainlanguage.org to get the press kit and the report card.
The Center for Plain Language, a non-profit organization, helps government agencies and businesses write clear and understandable documents. The Center supports those who use plain language, trains those who should use plain language, and urges people to demand plain language in all the documents they receive, read, and use. For more information, visit: centerforplainlanguage.org.
