Presumptive Speaker John Boehner pledged Wednesday to continue gathering public input about the Congressional agenda as the new House Republican majority prepares to take on big-ticket legislative items.

“Republicans have made a pledge to America and our pledge is to listen to the American people,” the Ohio Republican said in a press conference. “Programs like YouCut, America Speaking Out and some other ideas that we’ll outline here in the coming days will be intended to provide the American people a forum and a vehicle to talk to us so that we can in fact listen every day.”

The YouCut and America Speaking Out projects were Web-based platforms that allowed members of the public to vote or voice their opinion on what agenda items Republicans should advance.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seconded Boehner’s call for keeping the dialogue open.

“Clearly the election yesterday did not transfer full control of the government,” McConnell said. It’s the “first step in the direction of changes to what we’ve been doing in Washington.”

Neither leader discussed specifics of what legislation Republicans will push next year.

Boehner declined to discuss how his Conference would deal with raising the debt limit and earmark reforms.

“That’s what the transition’s for, to give us more time to figure out how we do those big things that need to be done,” Boehner said.

Boehner did say he supports operating under the fiscal 2008 spending levels.

He also said he will lead real oversight of the executive branch during the 112th Congress.

“I’m not talking about ‘gotcha’ oversight, I’m talking about rock solid oversight of the executive branch, which is a constitutional responsibility of the Congress,” Boehner said.

The financial services regulatory overhaul will be a key target, he said.