Rogers endorsing movement that could revolutionize federal government

Demopolis native and billionaire Jim Rogers believes that government can achieve greater transparency and accountability by staying at home.

Rogers has thrown his support wholly behind a movement known as Gov at Home, an initiative aimed at utilizing technology to keep Congressmen and Senators in their home districts.

Congressional members and Senators spend around 200 nights a year away from their homes, families and constituencies. And, in the process, are regularly exposed to lobbyists and delegations seeking to sway their vote.

Hence, Gov at Home believes that elected officials in the country’s largest decision-making bodies should stay plugged in to the wants and needs of the citizens who voted for them.

“In a Gov at Home world our Congressmen are living with us, like us.  What does this mean?  Are you required to use the phone and Internet to complete your work and attend meetings?  So will they.  Are you responsible for the quality of your work?  Then so will your Congressman be accountable for his performance.  Do you drive on your roads, send your kids to local schools, and drink your water…then so shouldn’t your Congressman?  Until they live with us, like us – how can they know how to serve their communities and have an incentive to do so?  This doesn’t mean that they cannot visit Washington,” the govathome.com site says of the notions behind the movement. “Let them go for the week required by the Constitution and for a few other weeks throughout the year.  However, they need to work, live, and vote in our communities.”

Gov at Home believes that modern technology allows for maximum connectivity across state and national borders, resulting in the abandonment of the need for elected officials to establish their homes and offices in Washington, D.C.

Rogers fall in line with the organization’s philosophy, citing his belief that keeping delegates at home will serve to reduce corruption and create better laws.

Rogers pointed to the 2008 vote by Congress to bail out Wall Street as a tally that would have gone a decidedly different direction is delegates were not sequestered in Washington, D.C. and exposed to special interest groups on a daily basis.

“They would never have used tax money to bail out the banks if they were forced to vote in front of us,” Rogers told al.com from his home in Singapore during a phone interview. “By changing the rules of the game, you make the lobbyists come to 535 individual districts, instead of us sending our representatives to them. I have no doubt our laws would be quite different.”

Rogers and Gov at Home call for Congressmen and Senators to log their votes by secure email and teleconference, a decision-making method that could save hundreds of millions of tax dollars each year by eliminating the need for each delegate to maintain Washington, D.C. offices that – according to the Congressional Research Service – average a budget of $1.4 million annually.

Rogers said he believes the idea is not as radical as some would call it and points to the Constitution’s flexibility in allowing the House and Senate to decide its own procedural rules.

And, as an added byproduct, the Gov at Home initiative could also significantly reduce the threat of a terrorist attack on the nation’s capitol city where all of the country’s leaders are typically gathered within approximately one square mile of one another.

“If the founding fathers were starting out today, they’d never centralize Congress of in some isolated place,” Rogers told al.com. “We’d have a much better government if locals were watching us vote instead of lobbyists. Sleep on it. Think about it.”