Making Government Transparent and Accountable
The Sunlight Foundation uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make government transparent and accountable. Underlying all of our efforts is a fundamental belief that increased transparency will improve the public's confidence in government
The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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Open CRS Document Upload
Yesterday, Open CRS, a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology (and Sunlight grantee), posted links to 47 newly available Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports. Included in this latest release by CDT is a report titled “Economic Stimulus: Issues and Policies.” Uh, that one might be one worth reading. And I gather that another 60 or so reports are going to be posted later today.
CRS is a $100 million funded “think tank” that researches and writes reports for Congressional lawmakers and their staff on current topics as requested by are used to produce them. There are serious and smart analysts there and their reports are well worth reading if you are interested in the hot issues of the day. These reports are all served up on an internal server on the Hill but the public is denied access to them. The only way you can get them in by calling a lawmaker’s office to request a copy. (The Catch-22 is, of course, how do you know to ask about a report if its existence isn’t publicaly listed someplace.) OpenCRS gets their copies from various people who choose to ‘liberate’ them. There is one commerical service that manages someway somehow to get all of them all. This service charges and arm and a leg.
Sunlight shares CDT’s demand that Congress open up all CRS reports to the public. This is an easy transparency reform that boggles the mind as to why it has not yet been done.
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Resources for a Congressional Shake-up
As reports swirl about Members of Congress in transition, it’s the perfect time to delve further into the mechanisms of congressional authority. How are Members assigned to committees, to chairmanships, to status as ranking members? How are leadership positions determined? Has it always been that way? This is especially true of the US Senate, where even one chairmanship changing hands can have a domino effect across many other committees.
We’re watching as Waxman challenges Dingell, Cantor challenges Blunt, Lieberman faces a loss of a chairmanship, Emanuel leaves a leadership position, and any number of other congressional transitions-in-progress.
Here’s a rundown of some of the most relevant CRS reports on these topics, many of which have just been added to OpenCRS.com. All embedded versions are from my issuu.com account.
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A Researcher’s Paradise
Sure the temperature is rising in D.C. but it’s like Christmas morning for public policy geeks when groups like the non-profit Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) launch something like PolicyArchive.org.
CGS says that the site is the “largest online repository of public policy research in the world.” And it’s all at your fingertips for free! Before the launch of this, online policy research could be quite burdensome, requiring the researcher to navigate through multiple Web sites that use various formats. CGS’ goal is to change all that by collecting policy papers from a “wide range of nonprofit, educational, governmental, private and international think tanks and research organizations” on 306 subtopics. The site currently has available 12,000 policy documents from over 220 think tanks, policy shops and other research organizations. A full listing of contributing sources can be found here.
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Your Late Night Reading: CRS reports Courtesy of OpenCRS.com
Poor John. He can’t quite get over his late night work habits. (Before he came to Sunlight to direct our Open House Project he worked a day job and indulged his fascination with politics between the hours of 10 PM and 4 AM).
Last night at 2 AM he sent this email:
I just finished reading the latest CRS report from August 26th on Congress and the Internet, linked in the latest Open House Project report, and was delighted to find that Sunlight and the Open House Project are specifically cited by Walter Oleszek (senior government analyst for CRS) for our work in promoting citizen access.
That it was Oleszek’s report was particularly satisfying for me, since reading several of his introductory books on Congress (Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process, and Congress and Its Members) is what got me quasi proficient enough to get started.
John has some more extensive thoughts this morning.
Too funny things. We wouldn’t have known of this report if it hadn’t appeared on OpenCRS.org (a Sunlight grantee.) And it was Oleszek’s early books that educated me too. (Makes you wonder how many other people learned what they know about Congress from him too!)
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Three New Grants
Just before I left town for a two-week break, Sunlight announced its first round of grants for 2007, totaling just over $200,000. On my return, I realized that we hadn't posted anything about them — other than a press release — and so our readers might have missed the news. We are staying the course in terms of the kind of investments were are making with the money going to organizations that are using new "Web 2.0" technology to further the organization's mission of putting information into citizens' hands to increase transparency in Congress. We believe that our grantees are on the cutting edge of work that will open up our legislative branch.
The first grant of $140,000 to the Center for Media and Democracy, is to support the second year of the joint Sunlight Foundation/Center wiki on Congress – Congresspedia. The second year's work is building on the highly successful first year and will focus on growing and developing the community of Congresspedia users and editors and increasing the user-friendliness of the wiki.
The second grant of $55,000 will support the Center for Democracy and Technology's Open CRS project, to use the Internet to promote the distribution of Congressional Research Service reports to the public. This grant will allow CDT to make some major technical upgrades to the site to ensure complete and timely access to CRS reports, develop new features and functions, and launch a campaign to promote the site's availability and attract new partners.
The third, and final grant of this round, was for $22,000 to Taxpayers for Common Sense allow them to develop a comprehensive plan to integrate and advance the use of the Internet and related technologies into their overall work. This work will include an initial assessment and planning process to redesign TCS organizational web presence and online outreach, communication, and constituency development strategies.
