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FREE ONLINE ACCESS TO CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS (fwd)
Greetings! Many might be interested in the contents of the
following...pass it on...
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 19:17:44 CST
From: Gary Ruskin <gary@Essential.ORG>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Subject: FREE ONLINE ACCESS TO CONGRESSIONAL DOCUMENTS
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Congressional Reform Briefings December 12, 1994
[To subscribe to Congressional Reform Briefings send the message
"subscribe cong-reform your name" to listproc@essential.org]
ISSUE BRIEFING:
The House Republican Transition Team is currently deciding
what materials to make available online to citizens over the
Internet. Citizens currently have free online access to the
Congressional Record, Federal Register, and the text of all
versions of all House and Senate bills through the GPO Access
program.
Following is a coalition sign-on letter to Rep. Vern Ehlers
(R-MI-3), who is directing the House Republican Transition's
online efforts, asking him to provide free online access to the
following materials:
* Congressional reports (including committee reports)
* Congressional hearing records, including verbatim
transcriptions.
* Congressional calendars
* Federal Election Commission campaign financial disclosure
filings
* Congressional Research Service reports and issue briefs
* Texts of federal laws and regulations
* The full text of Federal Court decisions, complete with a
public citation.
* Congressional Budget Office reports
* General Accounting Office reports
* Congressional news releases
We are seeking individuals and organizations who wish to
sign onto this letter. If you would like to add your name or the
name of your organization to the signatories of this letter,
please send the following information to gary@essential.org, by
Wednesday, December 21, 1994.
Name: ________________________________
Title (optional) ________________________________
Affiliation (optional) __________________________________
Address: _________________________________
City, State (very important) ________________________________
email address: ___________________________________
The letter follows:
##################################################
December 21, 1994
Representative Vern Ehlers
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via the Internet: CONGEHLR@HR.HOUSE.GOV
cc: Newt Gingrich, internet: GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Dear Representative Ehlers:
We are writing to urge you to provide free online access to
a wide variety of Congressional and federal government
information sources.
We applaud your efforts on behalf of the House Republican
Transition Team to improve and expand online access to
Congressional and federal government information. A December 5,
1994 Roll Call article stated that a preliminary draft of "The
GOP's Open House" blueprint for the House Republican transition
indicates that "The House ... will create a new office of
'Technology Resources and Electronic Dissemination' that will
consolidate efforts to give the public on-line access to the same
documents and publication as Members [of Congress.]"
Some Republican staff members have indicated that the
initial types of documents that will be disseminated will include
copies of the bills pending before Congress, the Congressional
Record and voting records. However, two of these products, the
bills pending before Congress and the Congressional Record, are
already available to the public for free through the GPO Access
program. (However, free access to these and many other products
is in jeopardy without secure funding.) And while we welcome
better access to Congressional voting records, we also urge you
to take bold steps to advance far beyond what the GPO Access
program already provides. Here are other materials we encourage
you to make available online:
* Congressional reports (including committee reports)
* Congressional hearing records, including verbatim
transcriptions.
* Congressional calendars
* Federal Election Commission campaign financial disclosure
filings
* Congressional Research Service reports and issue briefs
* Texts of federal laws and regulations
* The full text of Federal Court decisions, complete with a
public citation.
* Congressional Budget Office reports
* General Accounting Office reports
* Congressional news releases
We realize that you probably cannot make all of these
materials available before the first day of the 104th Congress.
Therefore, we ask that you make these materials available at the
earliest possible time. We believe that placing these materials
online will dramatically improve citizen oversight of the
Congress and the federal government.
If you have any questions about how the House might put
these materials online, or if you wish to discuss these issues,
you can contact Gary Ruskin at (202) 296-2787 or James Love at
(202) 387-8030.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Gary Ruskin James Love
Director Director
Congressional Taxpayer Assets
Accountability Project Project
##################################################
The Congressional Accountability Project is a part of Public
Citizen, which was founded by Ralph Nader. For more information
about Congressional Accountability Project, send e-mail to
gary@essential.org. The Taxpayer Assets Project is a part of the
Center for Study of Responsive Law, which was founded by Ralph
Nader. For more information about the Taxpayer Assets Project,
send e-mail to tap@tap.org.
[To subscribe to Congressional Reform Briefings send the message
"subscribe cong-reform your name" to listproc@essential.org]
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
Gary Ruskin
Congressional Accountability Project | Internet: gary@essential.org
P.O. Box 19446
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 296-2787 Fax: (202) 833-2406
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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