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Newt Gingrich on Public Access
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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - LEGIS
November 11, 1994
- Representative Newt Gingrich proposes free electronic access
to legislative information
- TAP praises Gingrich statements, asks for help on public
access issues
In a number of interviews after the sweeping republican victory
in the House of Representatives, Representative Newt Gingrich has
outlined a new effort to give citizens instant and free access to
Congressional information. For example, in a November 10
interview on National Public Radio, Rep. Gingrich said:
"We've developed a proposal which we will bring up in
January, that when a conference report or a committee
report is offered, when the president sends up a
message, they have to be put electronically available
at that instant so that every American everywhere in
the country has the same access as the lobbyists, has
the same opportunity as the insiders, and that
information is available automatically for free to the
entire county when it's made available to the members
of Congress."
The following is a letter sent by TAP to Representative Gingrich
(GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV), praising his comments, and asking for
help on specific public access issues.
--------------------------------------------
Taxpayer Assets Project
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
November 10, 1994
Representative Newt Gingrich
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via the Internet: georgia6@hr.house.gov
Dear Representative Gingrich,
We are among the many persons who were surprised and pleased
by your recent public comments regarding citizen access to
government information. It was good to hear you describe your
commitment to providing citizens with instant electronic access
to public records and documents which will empower citizens at
the grass roots. As you may recall, in 1991 we asked the House
of Representatives to provide public access to its LEGIS system,
and for the Government Printing Office (GPO) to provide online
access to a wide range of documents from the legislative,
executive and judicial branches of government. While Congress
enacted legislation in 1993 to provide such access, the
initiative has been plagued by a lack of Congressional support
and funding. We applaud your interest in this area, and look
forward to your new proposals.
We would also like to ask for your help in addressing the
following problems concerning citizen access to public
information.
1. SEC EDGAR records.
As you may know, the National Science Foundation has funded
a two year demonstration project through New York University
(NYU) to provide access to SEC filings via the Internet. The
taxpayers pay more than $60 million per year to collect this
information, which is gathered for the purpose of public
disclosure. It would cost about $.5 million per year to continue
this very popular and important dissemination program, which
benefits the whole country. At present, NYU estimates that it is
disseminating about 6,000 SEC filings per day from this project.
The SEC, however, still refuses to provide ongoing funding for
the Internet dissemination project. What can you do to ensure
that the SEC filings will continue to be available to citizens
via the Internet?
2. Court Decisions.
One of the biggest battles for citizen access to public
records concerns court decisions. At present West Publishing, a
very politically active firm from Minnesota, claims that it
"owns" the citation system used to cite most federal and state
court decisions. West also claims that its quasi-official
reporters of court decisions are subject to copyright because of
minor corrections it makes in grammar and other items. As a
result, it is extremely expensive for citizens to access legal
information through computer networks.
As you know, citizens are expected to know and obey the law.
What can you do to make the "official" versions of court
decisions more readily available on the Internet, complete with a
citation that can be used in court?
3. Legislative Information.
As you have discussed in national television, radio and
newspaper interviews, the House of Representatives has a wealth
of important information on topics such as roll call votes,
committee votes, campaign contributions, Congressional Research
Service (CRS) issue briefs, hearing transcripts, and other items,
which could be made available directly to the public through
computer networks. What steps will you be taking to get this
important information out to citizens?
4. Excessive Prices for Government Information.
A number of agencies are charging the public very high
prices for government information. I am enclosing under separate
cover our recent paper, "Pricing Government Information," which
discusses agency pricing practices. For example, the National
Technical Information Service (NTIS) charges a whopping $1,080
for the FDA's 2 diskette Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system,
and $1,995 for the EPA's Environmental Monitoring Methods Index.
Will you support measures such as HR 629 (103rd Congress) which
seeks to limit the prices that agencies can charge for
information products and services?
In closing, allow us to repeat our support for your call to
give citizens better access to our own public records. We
believe this is an issue which appeals to a very broad range of
citizens, regardless of their ideology. We will also be
forwarding comments to Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), who will be
examining these issues for the new republican majority in the
House of Representatives, and Representative Dick Zimmer (R-NJ),
who last year asked the House of Representatives to provide
public access to the House LEGIS system.
Sincerely,
James Love, Director
Taxpayer Assets Project
P.O Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036
jamie@tap.org
cc: tap-info@tap.org, Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-MI), Rep. Dick Zimmer (R-NJ,
dzimmer@hr.house.gov)
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