After going through the trouble of obtaining and digitizing the 1992 report on congressional documentation, I’ve started going systematically through the document, and, in an attempt to read more closely, have been taking notes.  This is a long post, but the parallels with the Open House Project are startling to me, as are the contrasts: […]

In order to clarify this post, I wanted to organize some of the governmental support agencies and bodies with responsibility or jurisdiction over congressional information access.  This list is still probably partial, as any such list would be, since jurisdiction and responsibility are ultimately a matter of habit and practice as much as they are […]

From the Open House Project Google Group discussion, here’s a partial list of recent transparency reform legislation, passed or pending.
Transparency bills that passed in 110th Congress, 1st session:
1. S.1 Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007:

Requires online posting of committee hearing transcripts/audio/video (Senate only)
Expands lobbyist disclosure to require quarterly filing, disclosure of bundled contributions, […]

You should proceed as soon as possible to check out the Library of Congress’s page on flickr, as announced this morning.
It’s an awesome collection of about 3,000 images, of the quality you’d expect from the world’s largest library.  It’s wonderful to see them available the same way we expect to share images with each other, […]

I always find it interesting how although our government is run by fairly strict procedural rules that have been written out in various places, starting with the constitution and ending somewhere past the horizon, sometimes it’s just impossible to locate exactly at what point in the procedural game “reality” is. For instance, the constitution outlines […]

Two particularly relevant new CRS reports this week:
First, a report summarizing lobbying reform measures:
Significant changes were made by Congress to the current lobbying laws, and to internal House and Senate rules on ethics and procedures, by the passage of S. 1, 110th Congress, and the adoption of H.Res. 6, 110th Congress. In the face of […]

The Office of Management and Budget offers tons of information publicly, and does a great job of archiving and indexing pdfs relating to their reports, budgets, and testimony.
I find the Statements of Administrative Policy to be particularly helpful, since the administration’s official policy positions on various legislative initiatives are all available as they’re available.
Now if […]