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

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

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

Kristi Walker (kwalker@CapAccess.org)
Tue, 8 Aug 1995 10:44:04 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Tue, 8 Aug 1995 10:44:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Kristi Walker <kwalker@CapAccess.org>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Groups Seek Broader Online Access to Congressional Information (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950804182528.23043D-100000@essential.essential.org>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91-FP.950808104245.18947A-100000@cap1.capaccess.org>


As an FYI, the title of Gingrich's book is, "To Renew America," not 
"The Contract with America." 

Kristi Walker
<kwalker@capaccess.org>


On Mon, 7 Aug 1995, James Love wrote:
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> TAP-INFO - An Internet newsletter available from listproc@tap.org
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 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
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>      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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