The Huffington Post's citizen reporters have spent countless hours poring over the health care legislation coming out of congress and digging into the financial relationships between congressmen and lobbyists, and now they have the opportunity to go straight to the source. This week, citizen journalist Charlotte Robinson will interview Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI: $176,900), and she'll be asking questions on behalf of the corps of HuffPost citizen investigators.
We have called on members of the Health Care Investigative Unit to submit one question they would like Baldwin to answer, and now we want to hear from HuffPost readers.
What question would you ask Congresswoman Baldwin?
As a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and of the Subcommittee on Health, Baldwin will play a key role in sculpting the House's health care bill.
In the first day of mark-ups, Baldwin added two amendments that were accepted by the committee. The first would create an educational campaign to raise awareness of the need for advanced care planning and establish a toll-free hotline to provide the public with information about advanced care planning.
Her second provision, offered by a small bipartisan coalition, creates a new grant program for educational institutions to develop mental and behavioral health training programs.
While not one of the major recipients of campaign contributions from health care lobbyists, Baldwin is no freshman congresswoman either. She has served in the House of Representatives since 1999, and over the last decade she has developed a strong grasp of how backroom deal making can transform a bill.
What question would you ask to shed light on the process of passing this mammoth piece of legislation? Send your questions for Baldwin to mattandadam@huffingtonpost.com before Wednesday at 5pm EST to be considered for Charlotte's interview Thursday morning. We look forward to hearing your suggestions.
*The dollar amount listed after each Senator and Representative refers to total donations from health care lobbyists during the period Jan 2003-Dec 2008 according to MapLight and the Center for Responsive Politics.