The Hill News

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) encouraged Republican lawmakers on Wednesday to use Twitter to advance GOP messaging ahead of a House vote on repealing healthcare reform.

The GOP Speaker asked his members (or their staffers) to use the hashtag "#HCRcostsjob" on Twitter throughout the day during the House debate and vote on legislation to undo President Obama's bill.

"Finally, I hope everyone in this room â€" either personally, or via your staff â€" is getting our message out using Twitter," Boehner said at a closed-door GOP conference meeting, according to prepared remarks. "On Twitter, they have something called a hashtag.  When you’re tweeting something on a certain topic, you attach a hashtag to it to create a common thread with other people who are tweeting on the same point."

Boehner's sought to encourage Twitter engagement with the new Republican Congress, many of the new GOP members in which are on Twitter and use it with some suc! cess.

But the Speaker's open encouragement of the GOP conference might be one of the most significant indicators to date of Twitter's real-time role in congressional action, and real-time messaging.

"#HCRcostsjobs is the hashtag.  On Twitter, this is code for OBAMACARE COSTS JOBS," Boehner told GOP lawmakers. "I encourage everyone to use it."