One aspect of congressional Committee Web sites that seems to frustrate even members of staff is how long it can take to post the formal, written answers that witnesses submit following many hearings.
As anyone who has spent any time around Congress knows, lawmakers often ask witnesses at hearings to submit detailed written answers to complicated questions that arise out of hearings.
Often these responses can take months to actually be included into the Congressional Record. The House Judiciary Committee took a step in the right direction when they posted their Q&A with the US Attorneys that were fired after their hearing.
I would take this “best practice” further. All Committees should be required to post Q&A responses to the hearing page within 48 hours of receiving them.
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Lobbying Update: Part 2 | The Open House Project // Aug 21, 2007 at 2:21 pm
[...] Also, Ari Schwartz posted this morning on the Open House Project blog about adding an additional requirement for the submitted answers submitted after committee hearings to be posted online. This would be a great addition to the requirement of transcripts being posted online for hearings, which will now presumably signed by President Bush. [...]
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