Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Saturday, March 01, 2008

Lieberman renews call for OA for CRS reports

Lieberman Calls for Wider, Easier, Timely Access to CRS Reports, press release, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, February 28, 2008. (Thanks to ResourceShelf.)

See also Matthew Weigelt, Sen. Lieberman wants congressional research to be public, Federal Computer Week, February 28, 2008. Lieberman is asking the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the internal affairs of the Senate,

... to make unclassified [Congressional Research Service] reports available on a public database, where the reports would be automatically posted after CRS publishes or updates them ...

CRS and the Secretary of the Senate are developing a program, similar to one the House uses, that would allow senators to choose the reports they would like to post on their official Web sites ...

N.B. As works of the federal government, CRS reports are in the public domain. However, CRS reports are currently confidential: research is done at the request of a Congressperson, who has sole discretion to release the research. Lieberman is seeking action by the Rules Committee on S. Res. 401, which would post all unclassified reports in a public database.

For background, see past OAN posts on CRS reports.