From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 16/02/01 17:05
Subject: Policy Post 7.02: Senators Introduce Bill To Put More Congressional
Info Online
CDT POLICY POST Volume 7, Number 2, February 16, 2001
A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
CONTENTS:
(1) SENATORS INTRODUCE BILL TO PUT MORE CONGRESSIONAL INFO ONLINE
(2) CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE REPORTS STILL THE MOST WANTED
(3) FRAMING AN E-GOVERNMENT AGENDA FOR THE 107TH CONGRESS
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(1) SENATORS INTRODUCE RESOLUTION TO PUT MORE CONGRESSIONAL INFO ONLINE
Led by John McCain (R-AZ) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a bi-partisan group
of Senators has introduced a resolution to put Congressional Research
Service reports and lobbying disclosure records online. The bill,
S. Res. 21, offers the best chance yet to make Congress more open
and accountable.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), housed in the Library of
Congress, uses taxpayer dollars to produce reports on public policy
issues ranging from foreign affairs to agriculture to health care. CRS
reports represent some of the best research conducted by the federal
government. All of the reports are posted online, but access is
available
only to Congressional offices through an intranet system. Citizens can
order paper copies of the reports through their Member of Congress, but
only by mail. Moreover, the general public cannot search through past
reports, and a comprehensive index of the reports is not available
online,
so citizens basically have to guess when they ask for something.
CRS reports would be useful to researchers, students, librarians,
government employees, and ordinary citizens. The McCain-Leahy resolution
would put about 2700-2800 of these reports on the Internet. Despite
co-sponsorship from Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-MS), the
measure
faces an uphill battle, as a few key Senators continue to oppose it.
A letter endorsing the resolution, signed by over thirty public
interest groups, including CDT, is at
http://www.congressproject.org/infopolicy/mccaincrsendor01.html
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(2) CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE REPORTS STILL THE MOST WANTED
Forcing citizens to obtain CRS reports by mail rather than online is one
example of Congress' continuing failure to take full advantage of the
democratic potential of the Internet.
In August 1999, after consulting watchdog groups, reporters, librarians,
and government employees, CDT and OMB Watch issued a report identifying
the "Ten Most Wanted Government Documents" -- useful taxpayer-financed
information that wasn't available online.
http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/
Since our report's release, three of the most wanted documents have been
placed online:
* Supreme Court Web site -- In a significant victory for government
openness, the Supreme Court put up a Web site last summer. Public
interest has been tremendous: the site received over one million
visitors in the first few hours after the decision was posted in the
Florida election case.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov
* Endangered Species Recovery Plans -- These documents, which used to be
available only for purchase, are now available in .pdf format directly
from the Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/recplans/index.htm
* Official Gazette of Trademarks -- Printed in compiled form, these
documents were online in such a dispersed format that even officials
at
the US Patent and Trademark Office could not find them. They have
since
been linked to from a single location.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/og.html#tm
Unfortunately, Congress is lagging behind in putting up its information.
In the CDT/OMB Watch survey, CRS reports were the #1 most wanted
document government-wide. Two other important sets of Congressional
information -- the full text of all Congressional hearings and a
searchable
database of Congressional votes -- also are still not online.
Reporter David Corn wrote an insightful article called "Filegate.gov"
detailing Congress' unwillingness to use the Internet, in the November
2000 issue of Wired. Corn's article is available online at:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.11/govdocs.html
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(3) FRAMING AN E-GOVERNMENT AGENDA FOR THE 107TH CONGRESS
The early 1990s offered great promise for the federal government's use
of
the Internet. As early as 1995, most federal agencies had Web sites with
information that had been previously available only in reading rooms in
Washington or by mail under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The
Library of Congress' legislative information site "Thomas"
http://thomas.loc.gov was seen as a revolutionary breakthrough for
citizen
interaction with government. In 1996, CDT was instrumental in securing
passage of the Electronic-FOIA amendments, which required agencies to
deliver documents in electronic format and to pro-actively post the most
frequently requested documents.
However, after the passage of E-FOIA, the momentum to use the Internet
to
increase government openness slowed. This year, with the convening of
the 107th Congress, CDT is seeing a renewed vigor among those interested
in using the Internet to make government more responsive.
A full e-government agenda has yet to take shape. However, it should
include the following initiatives, in addition to putting CRS documents
online as called for in the McCain/Leahy resolution:
1. Allow citizens to opt for online responses to their FOIA requests -
Citizens making FOIA requests should be able to specify that they
want
the government to respond by placing the information on the agency's
Web site. This would not only make more information publicly
accessible,
but would likely save money by sparing the government the expense of
having to copy and mail the same material over and over in answer to
multiple requests.
2. Rewrite the Privacy Act and require "privacy impact assessments" for
new information systems - Privacy has been shown to be the #1 reason
that people are not using interactive services, yet the federal
government is still operating under a Privacy Act signed into law in
1974. With the growth of the Internet, the Privacy Act needs a new
look.
3. End the 60 day rule - Under Senate rules, Senators cannot make any
changes to their Web pages within 60 days of an election, meaning
that
this most flexible and vibrant medium is frozen at the end of every
term
of Congress. Just when the most action is happening in Congress,
Senators cannot use the Web to interact with constituents.
All of these reforms could -- and should -- be accomplished in this
year.
Other initiatives, such as taking advantage of new technologies such as
XML to make government information more readily available to the public,
will require more time but should be launched now.
For more information on updating the Privacy Act, see the Federal
Computer
Week article by CDT senior policy analyst Ari Schwartz at
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1030/pol-schwart-10-30-00.asp
For more information on the "60 day rule," see
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1211/pol-schwart-12-11-00.asp
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Policy Post 7.02 Copyright 2001 Center for Democracy and Technology
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