Plain English Urged to Limit Federal Bureaucracy

[Valin]

Miller-McCune:

Could you say that in English, please? The Plain Writing Act of 2010 asks the U.S. government to better talk the talk of its constituents.
Emily Badger
7/12/11

Back when Annetta Cheek first went to work for the federal government in the 1970s, she was tasked with writing regulations for the updated Archeological Resources Protection Act, a replacement for the American Antiquities Act of 1906.

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“Somehow or another, we got into a very bad place,” Cheek said of Uncle Sam’s increasing penchant for long-winded legalese. “I really don’t know how we got there, but I’ve thought about that a lot.”

Last fall, at the prodding of Cheek and other “plain language” advocates, Congress passed a bill — the thankfully acronym-free Plain Writing Act of 2010 — that aims to finally cut out all the “disallowances,” “dispositions” and “probate proceedings” that stand between the American people and their government. The bill (all two-and-a-half pages of it!) required government agencies by this week to come up with plans to write all public communication from here on out so that people can actually understand it.

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