When Democrats won control of the New York Senate, they promised to restore accountability and bring the legislature into the 21st century. Yesterday, they took an important first step in fulfilling that promise by releasing an impressive new website.

Sen. Majority Leader Malcolm Smith introduced the site from his office in New York City:

The Senate's first chief of information officer, Andrew Hoppin, a former NASA "guru," as Mr. Smith described him, and his team of tech whizzes have been working on the Web site since January. They have also been training senators and their staff members on blogging, Twittering and how to gather feedback from the site for their decision-making processes, according to Mr. Hoppin. Nine Senators are Twittering so far, including Mr. Smith.

The site allows constituents to search for legislation by subject area, watch video from lawmakers, and comment on the bills scheduled to be discussed in public hearings. Hoppin and the senators have also introduced an initiative to translate bill text and legal jargon into plain language.