IV
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. RES. 454
Directing the Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
to take all necessary steps to make voting records of Members of the
House and other information on the legislative activities of the House
accessible on the Internet through the official homepage of the House
of Representatives, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 12, 1996
Ms. LOFGREN (for herself and Mr. FARR of California) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules
RESOLUTION
Directing the Committee on House Oversight of the House
of Representatives to take all necessary steps to make
voting records of Members of the House and other infor-
mation on the legislative activities of the House acces-
sible on the Internet through the official homepage of
the House of Representatives, and for other purposes.
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Citizens’ Right
To Know Resolution’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds the following:
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(1) Most individuals find that obtaining docu-
ments relating to the legislative activities of the
House is extremely difficult and time-consuming.
(2) The access of citizens to information on
such activities is vitally important to the continuing
success of our system of government.
(3) The dissemination on the Internet of infor-
mation on the legislative activities of the 104th Con-
gress has been declared to be a priority of the
House.
(4) Although some progress has been made in
making information available, important legislative
information (particularly the voting records of Mem-
bers of the House) is not yet accessible through the
official homepage of the House, even though there
are no technological barriers to making this informa-
tion available.
SEC. 3. IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO INFORMATION.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 15 days after the
adoption of this resolution, the Committee on House Over-
sight of the House of Representatives shall take all steps
necessary to make all information on the legislative activi-
ties of the House of Representatives currently available
to the public in the Congressional Record (including voting
records of Members in the House or in the Committee of
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the Whole) accessible through the homepage or other pub-
lic data facility operated on the Internet as the official
data facility of the House of Representatives at the same
time the information is made available in print form.
(b) SEARCHABLE
PRESENTATION
OF
INFORMA-
TION.—In carrying out subsection (a)(1), the Committee
on House Oversight shall make the information currently
available in the Congressional Record accessible through
the homepage or other data facility without modification,
except that the Committee shall present the information
in an easily searchable, indexed database which facilitates
public access to information on the activities of individual
Members of the House of Representatives and on other
legislative activities of the House of Representatives.
SEC. 4. ENCOURAGING FURTHER PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY.
Not later than 60 days after the adoption of this reso-
lution, the Committee on House Oversight of the House
of Representatives shall submit a report to the House on
its strategy for increasing public access to Congressional
documents and to information on the legislative activities
of the House of Representatives (including activities in
committees) accessible through the Internet and on the
status of its current projects to carry out the strategy,
including a description of the reasons for any delays in
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the implementation of such projects and recommendations
for steps to remove such delays.
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