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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 11:51:22 -0500
From: Gary Ruskin <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: support Senate measure to put key congressional documents on the
Internet
Congressional Reform Briefings February 15, 2001
-- Support Senate measure to put key congressional documents on the
Internet.
U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Pat Leahy (D-VT) introduced a
Senate resolution yesterday to place important congressional documents
on the Internet, including Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports
and Issue Briefs, CRS Authorization and Appropriations products,
lobbyist disclosure reports and Senate gift disclosure reports. The
resolution (S. Res. 21) is co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott (R-MS) and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT).
CRS reports are among the best research done by the federal government.
The McCain-Leahy resolution would put about 2700 CRS reports on the
Internet. In an notable affront to citizens and taxpayers, these reports
are available to Members of Congress and their staff on an internal
congressional intranet -- which is closed to the public -- even though
the taxpayers will spend $73.4 million to fund CRS operations during
fiscal year 2001. To read abstracts of CRS reports, see the Pennyhill
Press website <http://www.pennyhill.com> which sells the reports to the
public for $49 for up to five reports.
The House of Representatives recently initiated a pilot project to place
some CRS reports on the Internet. Several hundred CRS reports are now
available on the website of Representative Chris Shays (R-CT), at
<http://www.house.gov/shays/CRS/CRSProducts.htm>.
The resolution would put lobbyist disclosure reports on the Internet,
which could help citizens to track patterns of influence in Congress,
and to discover who is paying whom how much to lobby on what issues. In
another affront to citizens and taxpayers, these reports are
computerized, but are made available to the public on Capitol Hill, not
on the Internet.
"Citizens need easy access to these documents to discharge their civic
duties," said Gary Ruskin, director of the Congressional Accountability
Project. "Taxpayers deserve ready access to the documents they pay to
create."
The resolution is endorsed by the Alliance for Democracy, American
Association of Law Libraries, American Conservative Union, American
Library Association, American Federation of Government Employees,
American Society of Newspaper Editors, AOL Time-Warner, Better
Government Association, Center for Democracy and Technology, Center for
Media Education, Center for Responsive Politics, Common Cause, Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility, Congressional Accountability
Project, Consumer Federation of America, Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Electronic Privacy Information Center, Federation of American
Scientists, Friends of the Earth, Government Accountability Project,
Intel Co., National Federation of Press Women, National Newspaper
Association, National Security Archive, National Taxpayers Union, OMB
Watch, Progressive Asset Management Inc., Project on Government
Oversight, Public Citizen, RealNetworks Inc., Reform Party of the USA,
Regional Reporters Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press, Society of Professional Journalists, Taxpayers for Common Sense
and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG).
Congress has yet to put its most important documents on the Internet,
including:
* A searchable database of congressional voting records, indexed by bill
name, subject, title, Member name, etc.;
* Key texts of bills (especially committee prints, discussion drafts,
chairman's marks and manager's marks);
* All Congressional Research Service reports and products;
* Draft committee and conference reports;
* Lobbying disclosure reports;
* Committee and subcommittee mark-up transcripts;
* All congressional hearing transcripts and written testimonies; and,
* Congressional expenditure reports, such as the Statements of
Disbursements of the House and the Secretary of the Senate reports.
"Congress has been shamefully slow to put its most important documents
on the Internet," Ruskin said. "The McCain-Leahy resolution is a good
step towards placing the work product of Congress on the Internet."
In 1822, James Madison explained why citizens must have government
information: "A popular Government, without popular information, or the
means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or,
perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who
mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which
knowledge gives."
The measure contains a Sense of the Senate resolution that Senate and
Joint Committees should "provide access via the Internet to
publicly-available committee information, documents and proceedings,
including bills, reports and transcripts of committee meetings that are
open to the public."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
about the failure of Congress to put its documents on the Internet, see
the Congressional Accountability Project's website at
<http://www.congressproject.org>.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Please ask your U.S. Senators to co-sponsor S. Res. 21. The
congressional switchboard phone number is (202) 225-3121. To find out
who your Members of Congress are, as well as their phone numbers, fax
numbers and e-mail addresses, see
<http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html>.
The Congressional Accountability Project opposes corruption in the U.S.
Congress.
Congressional Reform Briefings are distributed electronically via the
cong-reform mailing list <[log in to unmask]>. To subscribe
to the cong-reform mailing list, go to
<http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/cong-reform> or send the
word "subscribe" to <[log in to unmask]>.
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Ruskin | Congressional Accountability Project
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.congressproject.org | mailto:[log in to unmask] |
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