Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Thu, 10 Sep 1992 08:10:30 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      A-130: TAP Comments, Pt. 1 of 2

From:         James P Love <LOVE@PUCC>
Subject:      A-130;  TAP comments, Pt. 1 of 2

      Comments on Proposed Revisions of OMB Circular A-130
                     Taxpayer Assets Project
                         P.O. Box 19367
                      Washington, DC  20036
                  Internet:  tap@essential.org

                         August 27, 1992


1.   THE TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT

     The Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP) was started by Ralph Nader to
monitor the sale and management of government property.  Among the
public assets that we have investigated are government information
resources, government-funded software, and government-funded information
systems.  We have been particularly interested in issues relating to the
pricing of government information products and services, public access
to taxpayer- funded information and information systems, and the quality
and nature of government information products and services.

     TAP has also undertaken a number of case studies of the impact of
federal efforts to privatize the dissemination of government
information.

     TAP is also engaged in research on a wide range of other topics,
including, for example, the management of federally owned mineral and
timber resources, licensing of federally funded inventions such as
pharmaceutical drugs, the allocation of rights to use public airwaves,
public infrastructure investments, and many other items.

     In *all* of these endeavors, TAP is a consumer of government
information.  We need to obtain information from dozens of federal
agencies on many different topics.  Consider just two examples:

     i.   In our study of federal oil and gas resources, we need access
          to Department of Interior (DOI) databases on OCS oil and gas
          lease auctions, Department of Energy (DOE) databases on oil
          output, consumption, and prices, and Federal Reserve databases
          on bond yields for federal debt.

     ii.  In our research on government licensing of pharmaceutical
          drugs we need access to databases on FDA approvals of new
          drugs, federally funded medical research, patents, and federal
          tax expenditures for orphan drugs.

     For many projects we need access to information on corporations
that are reported in SEC filings, or agency notices that are published
in the Federal Register.  This list could be expanded with countless
other federal information products and services.

     TAP uses these information resources to do research and produce
reports and studies.  Thus, TAP is both a consumer of government
information resources, and a producer of value added information
products and services.


2.   CITIZENS NEED MECHANISMS TO TELL AGENCIES HOW INFORMATION POLICIES
     CAN BE IMPROVED

     The federal government spends billions of tax dollars every year to
collect and store of information.  These expenditures create resources
that often have multiple uses, including uses that are beyond the
agency's mission.  But agencies are often indifferent to the public
interest in the information resources that they manage.

     Agencies should be required to accept comments from the public on a
wide range of information management issues, including policies on the
collection and the dissemination of information.  Citizens should have
mechanisms to regularly inform agencies of changes in policies and
practices that will allow citizens to better utilize federal information
resources.


3.   PUBLIC NOTICE SECTIONS IN A-130 SHOULD BE EXPANDED TO ADDRESS A
     WIDE RANGE OF PUBLIC INTEREST CONSIDERATIONS

     The proposed Circular requires agencies to provide notice and
accept public comments before an agency can create or terminate a major
information program.  This is too narrow a scope for public notice and
comment.  Citizens should have opportunities to tell agencies when
services are inadequate or poorly designed, and citizens should also
have opportunities to ask agencies to create new information products
and services.

     Agencies often commit errors of omission.  Failures to provide
public access to taxpayer-funded information systems, or to embrace new
technologies (online systems, CD-ROMs, etc) or standards are common and
important errors of omission.  Regular opportunities for public comment
on agency information management policies and practices would provide an
important mechanism to identify such errors.

4.   AGENCY PUBLIC NOTICE REQUIREMENTS SHOULD INCORPORATE THE PROPOSALS
     IN H.R. 3459, THE IMPROVEMENT OF INFORMATION ACCESS ACT.

     H.R. 3459, the Improvement of Information Access Act (IIA Act),
provides a model for public notice and comment on federal information
policy.  The proposals in the IIA Act were developed by a large working
group of librarians, researchers, and agency officials.  The public
notice sections would provide the following mechanism:

i.   Every year all federal agencies would be required to publish a
     report which describes:

     -    plans to introduce or discontinue information products and
          services,

     -    efforts to develop or implement standards for file and record
          formats, software query command structures, and other matters
          that make information easier to obtain and use,

     -    the status of agency efforts to create and disseminate
          comprehensive indexes or bibliographies of their information
          products and services,

     -    how the public may access the agencies information,

     -    plans for preserving access to electronic information that is
          stored in technologies that may be superseded or obsolete, and

     -    agency plans to keep the public aware of its information
          resources, services, and products.

i.   Agencies would be required to solicit public comments on this plan,
     including comments on the types of information collected and
     disseminated, the agency's methods of storing information, their
     outlets for disseminating information, the prices they charge for
     information, and the "validity, reliability, timeliness, and
     usefulness to the public of the information." The agency would be
     required to summarize the comments it received and report each year
     what it had done to respond to the comments received in the
     previous year.

     The issues addressed in H.R. 3459 are the types of things that are
needed to make agencies more responsive to citizens who use federal
information resources.  In comparison, the public notice and comment
provisions of the current draft of A-130 are limited and static.  We
need the flexible and dynamic approach embraced in H.R. 3459, to address
the concerns of data users as technologies change and as the uses of
federal information resources change.


5.   THE USE OF STANDARDS MAKES GOVERNMENT INFORMATION EASIER TO OBTAIN
     AND USE

     Few citizens are highly trained in using computers. Standards for
file formats, software interfaces, query commands and other items will
make it easier for the public to obtain and use agency information
resources.  A-130 should require agencies to use standardized record and
file formats and software interfaces.

     Computer technologies are rapidly changing.  Because technologies
and standards are constantly evolving, agencies should be required to
accept regular and frequent input from data users.


6.   DATA COLLECTION ISSUES ARE IMPORTANT

     Citizens need information to understand the world around them.
Agencies should encourage public debates over information collection
issues.  For example:

     -    The SEC should regularly accept public comments on the types
          of information that should be reported in corporate disclosure
          filings.  Investors or citizens who monitor corporate
          activities should have opportunities to tell the SEC the types
          of the information that should be included on corporate 10k
          reports, insider trading reports, stock prospectuses, and
          other filings.

     -    Historically the taxpayers finance about half of all U.S. R&D
          expenditures.  One measure of the efficacy of those
          investments are patents from inventions that were financed by
          the taxpayers.  The Patent and Trademark Office should collect
          information on patent applications that identify the role of
          federal funds in the development of the inventions.

     -    Prescription drugs are one of the fastest growing elements of
          the nation's enormous health care bill. The federal government
          funds more than $10 billion in medical research, and provides
          a wide array of special marketing monopolies and tax
          expenditures to the pharmaceutical industry.  In order to
          evaluate the reasonableness of the prices for prescription
          drugs, particularly those developed with federal funds, the
          federal government should collect data on the costs of drug
          development.  The government should also collect information
          on drug prices and revenues and the amount of money the
          government spends buying government developed but privately
          marketed drugs through medicaid and medicare.

     -    Many economists say the recent boom and bust in commercial
          real estate was a major contributor to the collapse of the
          savings and loan industry and the weakening of the commercial
          banking system, which has contributed to the current
          recession.  Pensions funds have also lost billions of dollars
          in commercial real estate markets.  The Bureau of the Census
          spends millions of dollars every year on a monthly survey of
          building permits.  This survey collects information on the
          *value* of permits issued.  Most real estate researchers want
          Census to collect information on the *square feet* of building
          permits, since that statistic is a much better predictor of
          real estate supply. Better information on the supply of
          commercial real estate would help prevent costly investor
          mistakes.


        These are just a few of the countless data collection issues
that deserve far more debate.  Agencies are often out of touch with
citizen concerns about information collection issues, and they need to
be required to accept suggestions on these issues.

End of Part 1 of 2
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