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Ralph Nader > In the Public Interest > Celebrate Freedom By Information and Get the Capitol Hill Citizen

Celebrate Freedom By Information and Get the Capitol Hill Citizen

By Ralph Nader
December 23, 2024

Have you heard of the Capitol Hill Citizen newspaper – a quarterly 40-page print newspaper? We have been publishing it since the spring of 2022. It goes beyond “official source journalism” about Congress – the 535 Senators and Representatives – to whom “we the people” have delegated far too much of our sovereign power under the Constitution.

We strive to help our readers become Capitol Hill citizen advocates who progressively condition the delegation of our power to make Congress work for the people instead of doing the bidding of Big Business, which funds congressional campaigns and often hires senators and representatives when they leave Congress.

The Capitol Hill Citizen is filled with vibrant content you are not likely to get anywhere else about what Congress is doing, should be doing, or should be paying attention to through hearings, reports, statements, and legislation.

The current November/December Capitol Hill Citizen issue, for example, contains the following articles:

  1. My article titled, Rise Up: Congress is Yours for the Taking: Are you ready to rumble?
  2. An unreported informal hearing in September on food, obesity, nutrition, and cancer with a laser focus on the food processing and marketing companies.
  3. Withering Heights: Congress Bows Down to Biden, by Bruce Fein.
  4. Congressional Hearings Ain’t What They Used to Be, by Christopher Shaw.
  5. Low Octane Labor Leaders Leave Workers in the Lurch, by Chris Townsend.
  6. Nuclear Svengali [Lobbyist Ted Nordhaus] on The Hill, by Linda Pentz Gunter.
  7. Bring Back the Corporate Death Penalty, by Mike Ferner of Veterans for Peace.
  8. Why Didn’t the Palestinians Try A Non-violent March?, by David Kelley. They did in 2008 and Israeli Snipers competed to blow out their knees and worse.
  9.  An Interview with Adam Gaffney (professor, Harvard Medical School) on Medicare (Dis)Advantage and the half trillion dollars in overpayments to giant health insurance corporations.
  10. And DeJoy Slows DeMail, by Christopher Shaw.

Articles in other recent editions include:

* Exposing the Gaza Death Undercount.

* The creation of the first-ever Congressional Progressive Staff Association (CPSA) by Jacob Wilson. CPSA now has more than 1000 Congressional staff members;

* What Can Congressional Committees Do to Confront Corporate Power? (Ten public hearings on major problems and legislation) by Robert Weissman;

* A frank interview with Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate;

* Read the Damn Bill: A Very Short Introduction;

* Greatest Bargain Ever: Buy Back Your Congress. Here’s How;

* The Top Ten Dead or Dying Laws;

* Increasing Deaths from Black Lung Disease Spur Federal Response;

 * Loose Talk on Nuclear War Without Censure or Reprimand;

* AIPAC’s Deal with the Congressional Black Caucus (With pictures and campaign cash);

* Open Letter to Congressional Staff;

* Shift Gears on Campaign Finance Reform;

* Congress Shall Have the Power to Declare War;

* Stephen Kinzer: Censorship, USA Style;

* Time to Criminalize Internet Gambling (www.stoppredatorygambling.org);

* Congress as Collectively a Weapon of Mass Destruction With Multiple Warheads;

* Congress Stops Printing Most Hearings disadvantaging civil society and libraries;

* Progressive Dems Won’t Push for Single Payer,”

* What’s Good for Congress is Great for the American People (two simple powerful bills); and

* Junk Food Lobby Fuels Obesity in the USA.

The Capitol Hill Citizen also presents poems, fables, pictures, cartoons, and much more.

For a donation of $5 (or more if you wish), you can obtain your copy of the Capitol Hill Citizen in print only sent via first class mail, by going to CapitolHillCitizen.com. You can order extra copies for your libraries, reading circles, reporters, or citizen groups. Many people have commented on the beautiful design of this 40-page, article-packed newspaper, personally delivered to each member of Congress.

Become a Capitol Hill Citizen to turn Congress around for the People. It’s easier than you think. (See: Breaking Through Power, City Lights Books, 2016).

P.S. There are other sources of information available to you such as newspapers, magazines, radio/TV station websites, etc. That is a large amount of information (facts, actions, decisions, evaluations, public opinions) for you to use in the spirit of the old saying that “information is the currency of democracy.”

In addition, there is the vital Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This is the 50th anniversary of one of our greatest successes, the 1974 FOIA amendments. Imagine, Congress had to override President Gerald Ford’s veto of your right to obtain information in government files, which agencies want to keep secret. The law, with exemptions, gives you the authority to demand information in government files, e.g. inspection reports on nursing homes and meat and poultry processing facilities, files about yourself from the FBI and other agencies, and tons of other information our government does not always want to voluntarily release. (For further details about the federal and state FOIA acts, see the C-Span coverage of the 1974 FOIA Amendments 50th Anniversary Celebration.)