Washington, D.C. - The website of Rep.  Howard L. Berman was recognized today by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) for having one of the best Web sites in Congress.  CMF analyzed all 620 congressional Web sites, including those of all Senate and House Members, committees (both majority and minority sites), and official leadership sites.  Congressman Berman’s site, www.house.gov/berman, was one of only 21 Representative websites to win CMF’s top-level award, the Gold Mouse.  

The 111th Congress Gold Mouse Awards are part of CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union, which seeks to improve the quality of communication between Members and their constituents.   For this project CMF partnered with researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, University of California–Riverside, and the Ohio State University to study how Members of Congress can use the Internet to improve communications with their constituents and to promote greater participation in the legislative process. 

“One of the key reasons for the awards is to highlight best practices so offices can improve their sites by learning from those already excelling in online communications,” said Beverly Bell, CMF’s Executive Director.  “Web sites like Congressman Berman’s serve as a prime example that we hope other congressional offices will follow.”

“Congressman Berman’s Web site shows that he understands how to meet the needs of his California constituents online,” said Bell.   “The Congressional Management Foundation congratulates Congressman Berman for having a website that is among the best-of-the-best on Capitol Hill, and we are pleased to present Congressman Berman with the 111th Congress Gold Mouse Award.

“The 111th Congress report shows that websites continue to be a critical channel through which Members and congressional committees can communicate with, and hear from, citizens.  The Internet is a vital tool for elected officials and the public to use in the give-and-take of ideas and opinions that has characterized the American form of government since its founding” Bell said.

Websites were graded on how well they incorporate five core principles that CMF identified through extensive research as critical for effectiveness:  know your audience, provide timely and targeted content that meets their needs, make the site easy to use, foster interaction both on and offline, and add value through innovation. 

Using these core principles, an evaluation framework was developed by CMF and their research partners, which would be fair and objective while still taking into account important qualitative factors that affect a visitor's experience on a website.   

The 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project report, a full listing winners, and other comparative data is available on CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union Web site at www.pmpu.org.