New Letter to Policymakers: Increasing Public Access to CRS Reports

By Bryan Rahija

The gist: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) needs a director who will work with Congress to bring free, online public access to the reports it generates.

Recipient(s): James Billington, the Librarian of Congress.

Signees: POGO and nearly 40 other groups.

Key passage: "Predictably, to fill the public void left by the CRS, several private companies now sell copies of these reports at a price. This means that non-confidential CRS reports are readily available to lobbyists, executives and others who can afford to pay. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people lack the information necessary to even request reports from their Members of Congress."

Key stat: American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the CRS.

Key quotation: "A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." (James Madison)

Background info: The Congressional Research Service provides nonpartisan research and analysis to Congress. CRS's current director, Daniel P. Mulhollan, announced earlier this year that he planned to retire in April.

Read the coalition's letter to James Billington.

Bryan Rahija edits POGO's blog.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Related:

• Quote of the Day: January 24, 2011
• Hopefully Coming Soon: CRS Access For All, and Other Opengov Initiatives from Congress
• Is This the Year Congress Improves Public Access to CRS Reports?
• Wikileaks Plugs Gaps of Missing CRS Reports

Comments

[C.Yee]

Couple of questions here:

Where are these private companies getting their reports from? Presumably the public domain, but is it something that can be revealed to the rest of us?

Having worked with government publications, this phenomenon is nothing new. It costs the government WAY too much to publish esoteric information in low quantities. However, there are a number of firms willing to take that information from digital to print for the few purchasers that would like it (at a cost, usually of hundreds of dollars per copy). I have more, but there's a word limit on this comment, so I'll stop now. Email me for more thoughts on it -- going from digital to print makes less sense today, when we're increasingly going from print to digital.