In our search for consensus on attainable reforms for the House, few topics will be as straightforward as requesting timely publication of committee transcripts.

We have a model for similar reform in the S.1, the Senate Ethics reform bill, which was passed in the Senate on January 18th. That bill–specifically Senator Salazar’s Amendment–addresses a simple problem: constituents don’t have meaningful access to what happens in committees in the Senate. According to Senator Salazar’s press release,

I was surprised to realize how difficult it is for constituents to figure out what goes on in our committee meetings – where the bulk of the legislative process takes place. While some meetings are broadcast on one of the CSPAN networks, and very rarely on cable or network TV, this is the exception. As far as the public is concerned, most of our committee activity occurs in the dark.

I’m glad to see this issue directly addressed in the Senate Rules, especially given what I wrote about committee transcripts in late November. I described the House and Senate Rules, pointing out that both stipulate a default of openness for committee hearings, with a few reasonable exceptions. In practice, however, the transparency the committees achieve does little to promote an informed populace. Most committees post their proceedings long after their relevance has become only historical, and many only post prepared testimony, often ommitting what actually occurs in the hearings.

The availability of these transcripts became important for me after starting a group seeking to collaboratively follow Congressional committee proceedings, called the Congressional Committees Project. By sharing resources and skills, we’re looking to increase our awareness and influence into the legislative process. Incidentally, we’re an easily identifiable group of stakeholders in government transparency, given that almost all of our work is being done online, with only a few contributors living near the Capitol.

Whether Senator Salazar, or co-sponsor Senator Obama, were aware of these efforts is unclear. In any case, this particular reform of the Senate Rules will grant web users meaningful access to Senate Committee proceedings. The House should follow suit, and set guidelines for timely, informative, accurate, accessible transcripts published online.