I was fortunate to be a witness at an excellent hearing today on E-Government in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Among other items of discussion, Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) introduced a resolution with Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) to put CRS reports directly online as called for in the Open House Project report.

Senator Lieberman also promoted some other ideas mentioned in the report as well:

While we are focusing today on the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch must also increase its transparency and expand its interactive relationship with the public.

In this spirit, Senators McCain, Collins and I are introducing today legislation to require the Congressional Research Service to make its extremely valuable reports public. No method currently exists for the public to access them quickly and easily. As a result, many businesses collect the reports and sell them to paying customers. Our bill would allow members and Committees to easily post all CRS reports on their websites to anyone with internet access.

Similarly, the Legislative Branch can do a better job of presenting information to the public about the status of bills and resolutions. We in Congress have access to a comprehensive website run by the Library of Congress, but the public site, known as “Thomas�, is far less advanced. Furthermore Senate votes, unlike House votes, are intentionally presented in a format that limits the public’s ability to examine Senators’ voting records. I intend to work with my colleagues and the Library of Congress to improve transparency and accountability.