Democratic Congresswoman Urges Congressional Leaders To Let Lawmakers Add Pictures Into Legislation

With more than 21 percent of American adults illiterate and 54 percent having a reading comprehension level lower than the sixth grade, one House lawmaker has an idea to bring Congress to the people — allow for the inclusion of pictures and “other visual illustrations” in legislation.On Tuesday Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez shared a letter that she sent to congressional leaders last month asking them to support her proposed “important institutional improvement” of making it easier to include illustrations in legislation.“Have you ever thought that it’s really weird you can’t add pictures to laws? I see so many laws that would be clearer and more logical if we could just include a map or a blueprint,” Ms. Perez wrote in a post on X. “As Congress increasingly works on issues involving technology, infrastructure, and architecture, visual aids are a crucial tool for clearly conveying legislative intent. Despite the value that illustrations provide, there is currently no consistent process for incorporating them into bill text,” she wrote in the letter.Posting on the same day that singer Dolly Parton, a world-renowned advocate for literacy, passed away, the Washington Democrat said that the lack of pictures in bills “limits Congress’s ability to function as a representative body.” She noted that the House rules state that “on rare occasions” bills “may contain an illustration.” However, she said that creates uncertainty about when illustrations can be included. “Ultimately, this is about representation. For too long, our laws have been written for ‘staffer bros’ with bow ties who will issue guidance on how to follow them from cubicles on Pennsylvania Avenue. We should be able to draft legislation that speaks to all Americans, regardless of how they learn or the profession they work in,” Ms. Perez wrote. Ms. Perez’s idea is not without precedent. The Picture Superiority Effect is a cognitive learning concept popular with marketers, politicians, and corporate advertisers that says people who learn visually and verbally are more likely to remember concepts than those who learn through words alone. On the other hand, several neuroscientific studies have shown that reading physically reorganizes the brain to help pathways connect language, visual processing, and comprehension centers, enabling faster information processing and efficiency. The United States currently ranks 36th in the world in literacy, according to the National Literacy Institute, which reports that poor literacy skills are correlated to higher poverty rates and cost the American economy about $2.2 trillion per year. The organization notes that some states estimate how many prison beds will be needed in future years based on projections of how well current elementary students perform on reading tests. With poor testing scores and behavioral issues in the classroom, many school districts in America are now moving away from technology, including cell phones, which have been faulted for a constant barrage of images and videos that distract students from learning. The literacy institute said it did not have someone available to speak with The New York Sun about Ms. Perez’s proposal; however, her idea to add visuals to legislation was panned by several online commenters. “Post-literate politics is on its way,” wrote a columnist at the Washington Post, Jason Willick.“How long until we get a meme enshrined in law?” asked the managing editor of Reason, Jason Russell.“The whole federal manslaughter murder law is just a surprisingly explicit picture of one stick figure impaling another stick figure with a sword, with a red crossout through it,” added a podcaster, Jesse Singal.Last November, Ms. Perez successfully added a provision to an appropriations bill, H.R. 5371, that directed the Office of the Clerk to explore the “feasibility” of adding illustrations to the bill drafting process. In a video posted on X in July 2025, Ms. Perez said she was inspired to launch her campaign when she wanted to include blueprints to make it easier for veterans to build homes but was told “no process exists to include visual information in bill texts.”“This felt like an affirmation of my sense that this place was built by lawyers for lawyers. Visual information is as true as legalese,” she said. Ms. Perez said she believes that the rule change would lead to the inclusion of “more forms of intelligence” in the legislative process and argued that the change would give individuals with backgrounds in the trades a “seat at the table” when it comes to drafting legislation.

Democratic Congresswoman Urges Congressional Leaders To Let Lawmakers Add Pictures Into Legislation

Democratic Congresswoman Urges Congressional Leaders To Let Lawmakers Add Pictures Into Legislation

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