U.S. Federal Government Information

December 22, 2009

Seeking Ideas for Greater Transparency and Open Government in Federal Departments, Agencies and on Federal Web Sites

In the e-mail below Camilla Tubbs, Chair of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Government Relations Committee provides useful information regarding efforts by the Obama admiinistration to create greater transparency and openness in and among federal departments and agencies. She is also asking what types of information people want to see on federal agency web sites? These are important questions that merit serious consideration. Although this e-mail was originally directed to a group of law librarians everyone should be concerned about these issues. Comments from both librarians and non librarians are welcome. We will be glad to forward comments on to Camilla upon request.

E-mail from Camilla Tubbs:

In his Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Transparency_and_Open_Government/

December 9, 2009

U.S. Senate Floor Schedule 2010

by David Badertscher

The following is the announced U.S. Senate floor schedule for 2010:

Jan. 5 – Second session convenes in a pro forma session

Jan. 19 – Senate reconvenes for legislative business

November 12, 2009

Congressional Printing: Background and Issues for Congress

by David Badertscher

A Report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepared by R. Eric Petersen, Analyst in American National Government November 5, 2009.*

Summary

Periodically, concerns have been raised about the number and variety of products created to document congressional activity. Other concerns focus on the process for authorizing and distributing printed government documents to Members of Congress, committees, and other officials in the House and Senate. These concerns reflect broader issues related to the manner in which government and private information is created, assembled, distributed, and preserved in light of the emergence of electronic publishing and distribution.

October 28, 2009

Taking Action To Help Free Online Access to CRS Reports

by David Badertscher

This posting is prompted out of concern for the need to provide open, online access to public documents including CRS reports, two e-mails received during the past two weeks, and two recent requests for recent CRS report referenced in a previous post to this blog.

First the e-mails. About a week ago I received a widely distributed e-mail from Emily Feldman, Advocacy Communications Assistant for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) framing the issues related free online access to CRS Reports and emphasizing the urgency of taking action now to help get this accomplished. Emily can be contacted at either 202-942-4233 or efeldman@aall.org This was followed up today by an e-mail from a law librarian Susan Nevelow Mart responding to Emily’s e-mail and reinforcing Emily’s call for action. Here are the two e-mails

From Emily Feldman:

October 6, 2009

CRS Report – Juvenile Justice: Life Without Parole

by David Badertscher

BY: Alison M. Smith, Legislative Attorney, Congressional Research Service (CRS)

September 14, 2009.

SUMMARY OF REPORT:

October 6, 2009

Health Care Update as of the Beginning of October 2009

by David Badertscher

Through various means, both web based and print, we are monitoring as best we can discussions related to the ongoing health care discussions. Below is an edited and excerpted version of some information we received recently from GalleryWatch in Washington, DC. We would like to share it with you. This updates our earlier posting on the Criminal Law Library Blog

____________________________

You might have noticed over the past little while that the Senate Finance Committee has been marking up a bill to reform our health care system.( see links following this discussion to the October 1 version of the bill from the Finance Committee and to a list dated October 5, 2009 of technical corrections to that bill).

September 18, 2009

Health Care Reform: The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee Version

by David Badertscher

Hearing and listening to all of the media hype of the last few days, one could be convinced that the Baucus version released a couple of days ago is the only legislation being seriously considered in the present debate. Far from it. Not only do he have at least one House version of proposed health reform legislation, we also have another Senate version which was Reported by the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP on July 15, 2009 and introduced yesterday as the Affordable Health Choices Act S. 1679 by the Senate HELP Committee Chairman,Tom Harkin.

This bill certainly represents a different viewpoint on health care reform than the Baucus bill and we hope it will help to level the playing field in the ongong debates and discussion on health care. The HELP Committee legislation does provide for a public option. Here is some of the language from TitleXXXI Affordable Health Care Choices for All Americans that appears on page 43 of the proposed legislation:

”(3) OFFERING OF COVERAGE.-

September 16, 2009

Baucus Health Care Proposal: America’s Healthy Future Act 0f 2009

by David Badertscher

Today Sept. 16, 2009, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released the first draft of the committee’s long awaited proposed legislation to overhaul the country’s health care system. The proposal is the result of more than a year of preparation and more than three months of intense negotiations between a small group of Democrats and Republicans led by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee.

The following are a few highlights of interest included in this 223 page proposal:

The bill includes a slimmed down price-tag of $856 billion over 10 years. Earlier versions of the health care legislation had come in costing $1 trillion or more

September 8, 2009

OpentheGovernment.Org Secrecy Report Card 2009

by David Badertscher

We are forwarding the following message from Emily Feldman of the Government Relatiojns Office of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) because it contains important information that we believe should be distributed widely:

OpenTheGovernment.org today released the latest edition of their annual Secrecy Report Card (http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SecrecyRC_2009.pdf). This year’s report card found slight decreases in government secrecy overall, though secrecy still trumps openness in many instances. This year’s report also includes a special analysis of the Obama Administration’s mixed track record on transparency.

Some of the highlights from this year’s report include:

August 25, 2009

Government, Cookies, and Federal Web Sites – Continued

by David Badertscher

After posting two articles on this Web site here and here related to the Obama administration seriously considering allowing much greater flexibility regarding the use of cookies and tracking devices on government Web sites, I thought I was finished with the topic. That is until this morning August 25 when I notices a well written and thoughtful editorial about “cookies” and the web in the New York Times. Since the editorial helped to clarify my thinking I wanted to share it with you here.

After a discussion of the issues, here in a nutshell are the concerns raised and approaches presented in the editorial:

1. More stringent requirements regarding the permanent and prominet display of notices on all government Web sites to clearly inform users that use of the Web sites is being tracked.