Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Sunday, December 16, 2007

Bill to mandate OA for CRS Reports

Steven Aftergood, A Resolution on Internet Access to CRS Reports, Secrecy News, December 12, 2007.  Excerpt:

A bipartisan resolution to provide online public access to Congressional Research Service reports was introduced in the Senate yesterday.

"The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, in consultation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, shall make available through a centralized electronic system, for purposes of access and retrieval by the public ... all information described in paragraph (2) that is available through the Congressional Research Service website," the Resolution states.

Exemptions from disclosure are included for copyrighted and personal information, and for reports that are prepared confidentially for an individual member or committee.

The resolution, S. Res. 401, was jointly introduced by Senators Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Susan Collins, Patrick Leahy, John Cornyn and Tom Harkin....

Comment.  This is very good news.  I've been one (among many others) arguing for OA to CRS Reports for years.  CRS Reports form a small patch of the mosaic, compared to publicly-funded scientific research.  But I'm delighted to see Senate supporters of OA finally turn their attention to them.