Similar to the OMB page on IT regulations, (discussed here), NARA has a helpful collection of federal documents management guidelines, laws, and regulations.  Looking over the laws that govern the practical aspects of transparency leaves me predictably disappointed, however, in online access to legal information.  In trying to track down the Federal Records Act, the best I can find are agency specific explanations and citiations to the US Code, but no text of the Act itself, or any congressional reporting that accompanied it (which I would probably find the most helpful).

Even more confusing is how parts of the US Code are referred to as Acts, which aren’t the same as the acts that create them, but the result of congressional action.  This isn’t a small distinction; congressional action comes with documentation and explanation (committee reports, amendments, etc), and is liable to be changed over time.  This is similar to the difference between the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations; the first is chronological and the second is organized by topic (and the Register is more comprehensive in scope).

Making reference to the authorizing congressional action could certainly be helpful, but not when the only resource available online for understanding them is the US Code, and the Acts themselves (and the explanatory information that should accompany them) are simply unavailable.

Context is essential to lawmaking (and interpretation), which is why I’m such a fan of explanatory and linking mechanisms that give context, like the Constitution Annotated, or the publishing of committee testimony, transcripts, video, and especially congressional reports.  (and, again, why it’s a shame that the veracity of the Congressional Record is suspect.)