II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 393

To provide Internet access to Congressional documents, including certain

Congressional Research Service publications, Senate lobbying and gift

report filings, and Senate and Joint Committee documents.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 9, 1999

Mr. MCCAIN (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. LOTT, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. ROBB,

and Mr. ENZI) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

A BILL

To provide Internet access to Congressional documents, including certain Congressional Research Service publications, Senate lobbying and gift report filings, and Senate

and Joint Committee documents.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Congressional Open5 ness Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) it is often burdensome, difficult, and time2 consuming for citizens to obtain timely access to

3 public records of the United States Congress;

4 (2) congressional documents that are placed in

5 the Congressional Record are made available to the

6 public electronically by the Superintendent of Docu7 ments under the direction of the Public Printer;

8 (3) other congressional documents are also

9 made available electronically on websites maintained

10 by Members of Congress and committees of the Sen11 ate and the House of Representatives;

12 (4) a wide range of public records of the Con13 gress remain inaccessible to the public;

14 (5) the public should have easy and timely ac15 cess, including electronic access, to public records of

16 the Congress;

17 (6) the Congress should use new technologies to

18 enhance public access to public records of the Con19 gress; and

20 (7) an informed electorate is the most precious

21 asset of any democracy.

22 (b) PURPOSE.—The purposes of this Act are—

23 (1) to foster democracy by ensuring public ac24 cess to public records of the Congress;
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1 (2) to improve public access to public records of

2 the Congress; and

3 (3) to enhance the electronic public access, in4 cluding access via the Internet, to public records of

5 the Congress.

6 SEC. 3. AVAILABILITY OF CERTAIN CRS INFORMATION.

7 (a) AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION.—

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Con9 gressional Research Service shall make available

10 through a centralized electronic database, for pur11 poses of access and retrieval by the public under sec12 tion 5 of this Act, all information described in para13 graph (2) that is available through the Congres14 sional Research Service website.

15 (2) INFORMATION TO BE MADE AVAILABLE.—

16 The information to be made available under para17 graph (1) is:

18 (A) Congressional Research Service Issue

19 Briefs.

20 (B) Congressional Research Service Re21 ports that are available to Members of Congress

22 through the Congressional Research Service

23 website.
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1 (C) Congressional Research Service Au2 thorization of Appropriations Products and Ap3 propriations Products.

4 (b) LIMITATIONS.—

5 (1) CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION.—Subsection

6 (a) does not apply to—

7 (A) any information that is confidential, as

8 determined by—

9 (i) the Director; or

10 (ii) the head of a Federal department

11 or agency that provided the information to

12 the Congressional Research Service; or

13 (B) any documents that are the product of

14 an individual, office, or Committee research re15 quest (other than a document described in sec16 tion 3(a)(2)).

17 (2) REDACTION AND REVISION.—In carrying

18 out this section, the Director of the Congressional

19 Research Service may—

20 (A) remove from the information required

21 to be made available under subsection (a) the

22 name and phone number of, and any other in23 formation regarding, an employee of the Con24 gressional Research Service;
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1 (B) remove from the information required

2 to be made available under subsection (a) any

3 material for which the Director determines that

4 making it available under subsection (a) may

5 infringe the copyright of a work protected

6 under title 17, United States Code; and

7 (C) make any changes in the information

8 required to be made available under subsection

9 (a) that the Director determines necessary to

10 ensure that the information is accurate and

11 current.

12 (c) TIME.—The Director of the Congressional Re13 search Service shall make available all information re14 quired under this section no earlier than 30 days and no

15 later than 40 days after the date on which the information

16 is first made available to Members of Congress through

17 the Congressional Research Service web site.

18 (d) MANNER.—The Director of the Congressional Re19 search Service shall make information required to be made

20 available under this section in a manner that—

21 (1) is practical and reasonable; and

22 (2) does not permit the submission of comments

23 from the public.
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1 SEC. 4. PUBLIC RECORDS OF THE CONGRESS.

2 (a) SENATE.—The Secretary of the Senate, through

3 the Office of Public Records and in accordance with such

4 standards as the Secretary may prescribe, shall make

5 available on the Internet for purposes of access and re6 trieval by the public:

7 (1) LOBBYIST DISCLOSURE REPORTS.—Lobby8 ist disclosure reports required by the Lobbying Dis9 closure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) within

10 90 days (Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays ex11 cepted) after they are received.

12 (2) GIFT RULE DISCLOSURE REPORTS.—Senate

13 gift rule disclosure reports required under paragraph

14 2 and paragraph 4(b) of rule XXXV of the Standing

15 Rules of the Senate within 5 days (Saturdays, Sun16 days, and holidays excepted) after they are received.

17 (b) DIRECTORY.—The Superintendent of Documents,

18 under the direction of the Public Printer in the Govern19 ment Printing Office, shall include information about the

20 documents made available on the Internet under this sec21 tion in the electronic directory of Federal electronic infor22 mation required by section 4101(a)(1) of title 44, United

23 States Code.
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1 SEC. 5. METHOD OF ACCESS.

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The information required to be

3 made available to the public on the Internet under this

4 Act shall be made available as follows:

5 (1) CRS INFORMATION.—Public access to infor6 mation made available under section 3 shall be pro7 vided through the websites maintained by members

8 and committees of the Senate. The Director of the

9 Congressional Research Service shall work with the

10 Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate to carry out this

11 paragraph.

12 (2) PUBLIC RECORDS.—Public access to infor13 mation made available under section 4 by the Sec14 retary of the Senate’s Office of Public Records shall

15 be provided through the United States Senate

16 website.

17 (b) EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR CRS REPORTS

18 ONLINE.—The Director of the Congressional Research

19 Service is responsible for maintaining and updating the

20 information made available on the Internet under section

21 3, and shall have sole discretion to edit that information

22 under this Act.

23 (c) FURTHER APPROVAL NOT REQUIRED.—Notwith24 standing any other provision of law to the contrary, the

25 Director of the Congressional Research Service shall make

26 the information required to be made available under sec-
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1 tion 3 of this Act without the prior approval of the Senate

2 Committee on Rules and Administration, the Committee

3 on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, or

4 the Joint Committee on Printing.

5 SEC. 6. CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE MATERIALS.

6 It is the sense of the Senate that each standing and

7 special committee of the Senate and each Joint Committee

8 of the Congress, in accordance with such rules as the com9 mittee may adopt, should provide access via the Internet

10 to publicly-available committee information, documents,

11 and proceedings, including bills, reports, and transcripts

12 of committee meetings that are open to the public.

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