Gingrich fails to get key tax bill online before mark-up

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
Crown Jewels - Congressional Information
September 18, 1995

    -  Problems persist with access to House Legislation.

    At 5 pm today the House Ways and Means Committee meets
    to mark-up key tax bill.  Committee staff tells 
    citizens that they must contact BNA for paper copies
    of proposed legislation (for $27) and that electronic 
    copies are available from LEXIS.  TAP, Congressional 
    Accountablity Project and Center for Responsive Politics 
    write to Gingrich (again), asking him to keep his promise to
    gives ordinary citizens same access as high priced 
    lobbyists.   The letter follows.  jamie (love@tap.org)


September 18, 1995

Speaker Newt Gingrich
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via Internet:  georgia6@hr.house.gov
voice 202/225-4501; fax 202/225-4656

Dear Mr. Speaker:

We are writing to express our outrage over the House of
Representatives' failure to provide the public copies of
Representative Archer's "Chairman's Mark" for the tax bill which
will be marked up today at 5 pm in the House Ways and Means
Committee.  We contacted the House Ways and Means Committee to
obtain copies of the legislation, and were told that it was only
available on paper from the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA), or
online from commercial vendors, such as LEXIS/NEXIS. 
Representative Archer's staff gave us a telephone number for BNA
(202/452-4323).  BNA told us that the price of the bill is
$27.  The Archer staffer said the bill runs more than 700 pages.  
Unless the bill was written by BNA, the House of Representatives
must have a copy in digital form.  Your promise that
Congressional information

     "will be available to any citizen in the country at the
     same moment it is available to the highest paid
     Washington lobbyist"

is pretty meaningless if the Chairman's Mark for a 700 page tax
bill involving billions of dollars isn't available from THOMAS or
the Committee before the mark-up.  What's the deal?

If citizens can't get copies of a bill before committee action,
and lobbyists can, lobbyists will continue to have more access to
the legislative process than ordinary citizens.

We wrote to you on August 22, 1995 to express our concerns about
the very problems which occurred today.  We have yet to receive a
response.  Please tell us what you plan to do to keep your
promise regarding citizen access to Congressional information.

Sincerely,

James Love, Taxpayer Assets Project, 202/387-8030, love@tap.org
Gary Ruskin, Congressional Accountability Project, 202/296-2787,
     gary@essential.org
Ellen Miller, Center for Responsive Politics, 202/202/857-0044

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