Congressional Transparency
Although Congress has made strides in recent years, much Congressional information is still completely hidden from the public, or made available in unusable forms, for no legitimate reason.OpenTheGovernmemt.org's coalition partner the Sunlight Foundation has launched collaborative efforts by government and legislative information experts, congressional staff, non-profit organizers and bloggers to study how Congress currently integrates the Internet into its operations, and to suggest attainable reforms to promote public access to its work and members.
Catch up on their progress by visiting the:
OpenTheGovernment.org is working on several initiatives with our partners to make Congress more transparent. Some of these efforts are highlighted below.Congressional Research Service Reports
Despite the fact American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the organization's reports are not made easily available at no cost to the public. Our partner the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) runs OpenCRS, a site where members of the public post reports they have obtained through their Member of Congress. Once Congress has granted the public open access to CRS reports, OpenCRS will be maintained as an educational site and serve as an archive for old reports.
Currently, no legislation has been introduced to open CRS to the public during the 11th Congress. During the 110th Congress, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and 5 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced S. Res. 401, which would direct the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, to make available through a centralized, public access and retrieval electronic system these CRS documents: Issue Briefs; Reports that are available to Members of Congress through the CRS website; and Authorization of Appropriations Products and Appropriations Products. Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT) and two democratic members sponsored similar legislation in the House, H.R. 2545. Neither the Senate nor House bill was considered by Committee, or sent to the floor for a vote.
Electronic Campaign Finance Reports
Currently, Senate reports are filed on paper, in a slow and wasteful process that delays when the public can find out who is contributing to Senate candidates. Candidates for the House of Representatives and the presidency file electronically, making the information in their reports publicly available online in a faster, more efficient manner than Senate reports.
The Sunlight Foundation, a coalition partner, has set up a website, Pass S.482 to help the public lobby their Senators in support of legislation to require Senators to file campaign finance reports electronically, and to gather information about Congressional supporters and opponents. A similar bill did not pass during the 110th Congress after it was subject to "holds" by several Senators and Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) threatened to attach a an unnecessary and harmful amendment that would prevent charities, religious organizations and other non-profits from filing legitimate ethics complaints by forcing disclose the names of their donors. Similar challenges to S. 482 are expected during the 111th Congress.
Read the Bill
To promote public access to legislative language before a bill is voted on, the Sunlight Foundation launched Read the Bill. The project is an effort to gather broad consensus and a show of public support behind the simple concept that all non-emergency legislation should be available online for 72 hours before debate begins.