Senators Reintroduce Bill to
Make CRS Reports Public
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced February 11 that they would reintroduce legislation to make documents from the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service available to the public online. The CRS Web site is presently accessible only by Congress, and CRS is prohibited from disseminating its work directly to the public.
“Public records would actually become public,” said Leahy, who noted when the bill was introduced during the last Congress it failed to reach the floor. Similar legislation had also been stalled in previous sessions.
Federal Computer Week reported February 11 that although CRS received over $81 million in funding from taxpayers in fiscal 2002 to fund the CRS, they don’t have ready access to the reports. McCain said individuals must pay nearly $30 to purchase reports from private companies that have obtained them from former members of Congress who have become lobbyists.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a government watchdog group, issued a report February 10 urging that CRS make its products public. “CRS’s secrecy is an anachronism from before the information age. It has no place in the Internet era,” said POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian. “Furthermore, to allow former members of Congress who are now lobbyists access to this service, while denying it to the public, is counter to the principles of open government.”
Posted February 17, 2003.
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