Originally published in the Reading Eagle 

Written by Karen Shuey

Hanging outside U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s Washington office is a sign.

It reads: “This office belongs to the people of Pennsylvania’s 6th District.”

It’s a message that’s not lost on the Chester County Democrat, who represents Reading and many southwestern communities in Berks County. In fact, she said she views that sign as a directive.

“When I was elected to serve, I wanted to hit the reset button on the perception that people have historically had — me included — that our government is somewhere out there and not involved in their lives,” she said. “I wanted people to feel like they were a part of their own government.”

Houlahan said that to accomplish that goal she has made an effort to meet people where they are and keep the lines of communication open. The freshman representative points out she has held 18 town halls and praises her team for helping more than 1,000 constituents get connected to the resources they need since being elected in 2016.

It appears the team at the Congressional Management Foundation has taken notice.

The nonpartisan group, which has been around since 1977, has announced that Houlahan is a finalist to receive a Democracy Award for efforts to improve government transparency and to foster innovations on Capitol Hill.

Specifically, Houlahan is being singled out for her transparency, accountability and innovation.

Houlahan said that soon after she was sworn into office her team met to talk about its objectives, its values and its goals. And on that list of goals was getting a Democracy Award.

“We really wanted to orient our team around being deliberate and thoughtful about transparency and accountability,” she said. “We wanted to demonstrate through our actions that we are a different kind of office. So I’m very proud of my team.”

Congressional Management Foundation is expected to name the winners of the Democracy Awards in August.