roundtable: Groups Seek Broader Online Access to Congressional Information (fwd)

roundtable: Groups Seek Broader Online Access to Congressional Information (fwd)

Groups Seek Broader Online Access to Congressional Information (fwd)

James Love (love@Essential.ORG)
Fri, 4 Aug 1995 18:26:01 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Fri, 4 Aug 1995 18:26:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: James Love <love@Essential.ORG>
To: pacs-l <pacs-l@uhupvm1.uh.edu>,
Subject: Groups Seek Broader Online Access to Congressional Information (fwd)
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950804182528.23043D-100000@essential.essential.org>


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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
Crown Jewels Campaign - Congressional Information
August 4, 1995


-     Groups seek signatures for letter to Gingrich broadening public
access to Congressional information.  Letter asks Gingrich to add a 
number of new items to Library of Congress THOMAS or GPO Access systems.  
The text of the letter is given below.  To sign, send the following
information to Gary Ruskin (gary@essential.org) by August 21, 1995. 
Thanks much.  jamie love, TAP.  (love@tap.org, 202/387-8030)

Name:  ________________________________________________
Title (optional)  ______________________________________
Affiliation (optional) __________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________
City, State (very important) ____________________________
E-mail address: ________________________________________


          the letter follows
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August 4, 1995 

Speaker Newt Gingrich
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via the Internet:  GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV

Dear Speaker Gingrich:

          We are writing to ask for a renewed commitment to
provide Americans with online access to essential Congressional
documents. 

          In your November 11, 1994 remarks to the Washington
Research Group Symposium, which are reprinted in your book
"Contract With America," you state that "we will change the rules
of the House to require that all documents and all conference
reports and all committee reports be filed electronically as well
as in writing and that they cannot be filed until they are
available to any citizen who wants to pull them up.  Thus,
information will be available to any citizen in the country at
the same moment it is available to the highest paid Washington
lobbyist."

          On January 5, 1995, you voiced your support for a
letter signed by more than 800 Americans requesting free online
access to Congressional documents.  Commenting on their letter,
you said, according to the January 14, 1995 issue of the National
Journal,  "Great! I want every American to have the maximum
access to information, with the minimum cost, with the greatest
convenience."

          But your promise to provide online access to
Congressional documents still remains unfulfilled.  There are
many important Congressional documents which are not available on
the Library of Congress THOMAS system, GPO Access or any other
government service.  In particular:

1.        Committee prints of bills.  One of the most serious
problems is the restricted access to "committee prints" of bills. 
While ordinary citizens are examining the copies of bills which
have been introduced and made available through THOMAS and GPO
Access, lobbyists and other well-connected insiders are studying
the paper copies of a committee print or "chairman's mark" of a
bill, which are the relevant documents for legislation.  The
House policy of preventing GPO from disseminating committee
prints without permission of the chair of the committee is
outrageous and should be changed.  These documents should be
available on the Internet as soon as they are available. 

2.        Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports.  The Federal
Elections Commission (FEC) reports on campaign contributions are
of interest to millions of Americans.  Online access through
THOMAS or GPO Access would greatly broaden the dissemination of
this important information.

3.        Committee reports.  When a committee passes a bill, it
provides a report with important information explaining the bill,
the hearings held, and the dissenting views on the legislation. 
Your promise to provide these documents on the Internet has not
been fulfilled.  As a result, citizens are still having great
difficulty following the furious pace of legislative activity on
a wide range of issues.

4.        Voting records of members of Congress.  While the votes
on bills reaching the floor of the Senate or House are recorded
in the online version of the Congressional Record, it is very
time-consuming and often difficult to find these without
extensive browsing of the documents.  As we have suggested
before, citizens should be able to access voting records on bills
and amendments directly, indexed by bill title, bill number, and
bill subject.

5.        Amendments.  Amendments should be made available on
THOMAS as early as possible, so that citizens can review the
substance of the amendment and make their views heard.  For
example, until an amendment is online, it should not be
considered "introduced." 

6.        Congressional Research Service reports.  In September
1994, CRS announced a pilot project for the electronic
distribution of CRS Reports and Issue Briefs to Congressional
offices.  However, ordinary citizens are still without online
access to these documents.  These documents should be available
to the public on THOMAS and GPO Access.

7.        Verbatim transcripts (both corrected and uncorrected) from 
Congressional Hearings. Lobbyists can buy these from transcribers, 
but ordinary citizens have to wait months or even years for 
printed hearing records.  We want uncorrected transcripts made 
available the day after the hearing, and corrected transcripts 
available ASAP.

8.        Congressional testimonies.  If persons testifying
before Congress provide an electronic copy of their prepared
testimony, the testimony should be immediately placed on THOMAS
or GPO Access for broader public access.   All government
officials should be required to provide electronic copies of
their prepared testimonies for public dissemination.

9.        Discharge Petitions.  The lists of Discharge Petition
signers should be available online.

          If you have any questions about how the House might put
these materials online, or if you wish to discuss these issues,
you can contact James Love at (202)387-8030 or Gary Ruskin at
(202) 296-2787.

          Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

James Love, Director, Taxpayer Assets Project
Gary Ruskin, Director, Congressional Accountability Project
Jim Warren, Columnist, Govt. Technology, MicroTimes, BoardWatch
Paul Jacob, Executive Director, U. S. Term Limits
Richard Vuernick, Legal Policy Director, Citizen Action
Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, Director, Term Limits Legal Institute
Tom Devine, Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Danielle Brian, Exec. Director, Project on Government Oversight
Michael Panetta, CyberStrategy Project, Feder. of Am. Scientists
Conrad Martin, Executive Director, Fund for Constitutional Govt.
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     The Congressional Accountability Project is a Ralph Nader
Congressional reform group.  For more information about the
Congressional Accountability Project, send e-mail to
gary@essential.org.  The Taxpayer Assets Project is a part of the
Center for Study of Responsive Law, which was founded by Ralph
Nader.  For more information about the Taxpayer Assets Project,
send e-mail to love@tap.org or check out the tap archives at
(http://www.essential.org/tap/tap.org; or gopher://tap.org).

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

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