Good news! House Administration Rejects Recommendation to Charge Public for Access to Legislative Documents
Copyright 2013 Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc.
Congressional Documents and Publications
May 22, 2013
SECTION: U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DOCUMENTS
HEADLINE: House Administration Rejects Recommendation to Charge Public for
Access to Legislative Documents
BODY:
May 22, 2013
House Administration Rejects NAPA Recommendation to Charge Public for Access
to Legislative Documents
Committee on House Administration Calls on GPO to Maintain Free Access to
Congressional Documents
Washington, DC - Today, House Administration Chairman Candice Miller,
R-Mich., and Ranking Member Robert Brady, D-Pa., issued the following statement
after the full Committee sent a letter to the Acting Public Printer of the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO) rejecting a recent recommendation by the
National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to charge the public for access
to GPO's congressional documents:
"Charging the public to access legislative data and documents would be a
colossal setback to the progress Congress has made to improve transparency and
access to legislative information.
"Over the past few years this Chamber has made vast improvements to the way
the public accesses House information. From posting financial disclosures
online, to creating an online central repository for bills and amendments before
the House and its committees, to establishing a single public website that hosts
all live and archived committee hearing videos, we have worked towards the
common goal of engaging our constituencies in the legislative process. Charging
the public to access important legislative documents offered online by GPO, like
the Congressional Record and the U.S. Code, would be a direct assault on our
ability to engage Americans in a process that is of great consequence to their
livelihoods.
"While we share GPO's efforts to seek remedies to government-wide budget
constraints that have impacted every corner of the federal government, in the
interest of transparency and accessibility, we believe that publicly available
documents should continue to be offered to the public with free access."
The letter
http://cha.house.gov/sites/republicans.cha.house.gov/files/documents/committeedo
cs/CHA%20Letter%20-%20Free%20Access%20to%20Government%20Information%20-%205%2022
%2013.pdf to GPO's Acting Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks is written in
response to a recent report from NAPA, "Rebooting the Government Printing Office
: Keeping America Informed http://www.napawash.org/publications/rebooting-the-
government-printing-office-keeping-america-informed-in-the-digital-age/," which
recommends that GPO consider charging "end users" for access to its repository
of government documents made available via its online platform, Federal Digital
System (FDsys).
- 274 views