But as of this writing, what will be available is unclear, as is Senate cooperation.
Let's Tell 'em
This want-list and reader-action proposal is appearing, here in Government Technology, in MicroTimes , and in BoardWatch.
Just think of the likely impact if many of those 360,000 subscribers took the very-few minutes needed to copy this column to Gingrich, Senate leader Bob Dole, their state's two Senators, and their local district's federal representative, along with a note on letterhead stationary saying, "Please do this NOW!"
So let's do it!
To the Speaker, et al
Congress' new "Thomas" public-access system should include timely, free* access to ALL items in all of the following, as soon as they are available to congressional staff and Washington lobbyists:
+ Bills and amendments (including page- and line-numbers used in references)
+ Nonpartisan and partisan bill-analyses
+ Committee reports
+ Schedules and agendas for committees and all other meetings and hearings
+ Prepared testimony and handouts (require paid lobbyists to submit them on diskette)
+ Bill history and status
+ Unclassified minutes and transcripts
+ Motions made and votes taken
+ The Congressional Record (with actual remarks and after-the-fact additions clearly identified, even in ASCII monofont type)
+ Transcripts of C-Span programs
+ Position-statements by legislators (except those issued within - say - six months before any election)
+ Abstracts, summaries, topic-indices and cross-references of all information available
+ Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports
+ Library of Congress' computerized files
+ Proposed budgets plus actual expenditures, including those of Congress
+ The "what-if" economic-modeling software developed by the bipartisan deficit-reduction study commission)
+ Federal statutes, regulations, policies and treaties available to Congress, including the Federal Register and case-law
+ Legislators' interest-areas, personal backgrounds, D.C. and district phone and fax numbers, and snail-mail and electronic-mail addresses (hiding Washington fax-numbers from "unimportant" people is outrageous)
+ Same information for legislative staff, plus descriptions of their expertise and current assignments - easily updated when it's online (professional vitae also helpful)
+ Names and addresses of registered lobbyists and their disclosed clients, legislative interests, fees received and "contributions" channeled
+ Timely and complete campaign-finance disclosures and financial-interest statements (now online from the Federal Elections Commission - for a fee and after re-keying delays; require that significant disclosures be submitted in computerized form)
+ Descriptions and tutorials about each committee and its jurisdiction
+ Overview of how Congress works in principle
+ Practical tutorials about how Congress really functions, as would be needed by new legislators and lobbyists
- among other things.
Make this available in standard, nonproprietary forms - computer text, publication-quality text, financial spreadsheets, database datafiles, graphs, photos, motion video, satellite images, maps, etc. - or include freeware to handle non-standard formats.
Anything less - or less-timely - is merely inadequate pretense of public access.
And of course, we want it all now.
* - "Free" (Tax Prepaid)
If this information is already computerized for government use, then taxpayers have already paid for it.
Online access costs - per item, per computer-using-citizen - are nano-pennies; much less than billing-for and collecting user fees would cost.
Furthermore, given that a timely informed public is prerequisite to a free society, and recognizing that any fees would deter citizen access, access should be without federal fees.
Furthermore, place this public information in the public domain, permitting copying and re-use by citizens, non-profit groups and for-profit users. This mirrors the Executive branch policy in OMB Circular A-130 of June, 1993.
This encourages public-service groups and tax-generating entrepreneurs to add value, create additional analyses, cross-references and indices, circulate copies, fax summaries and automated notifications, and so on - things government agencies couldn't or shouldn't do.
Jim Warren has received the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists' James Madison Freedom of Information award, the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in its first year. He founded the Computers, Freedom & Privacy conferences and InfoWorld magazine. Warren lives near Woodside, Calif.; e-mail: jwarren@well.com
