[Ecommerce] Sign-on Draft letter to GSA regarding contracts online

[James Love]

Today is the deadline to tell the GSA which federal contracts it should 
include in a demonstration project for online disclosure. This is our 
draft letter. We are looking for (a) suggestions for more candidates and 
(b) co-signatures. Others may also want to send their own letters. The 
letters can be short, but cut and past the header info and tell the GSA 
which contracts you would like to see on the Internet. Today (August 5)  
is the last day for comments.

Jamie <james.love@cptech.org>

--------

General Services Administration,
Regulatory Secretariat (MVA)
1800 F Street, NW., Room 4035,

ATTN: Laurie Duarte, Washington, DC 20405.
Notice.2003-N01@gsa.gov

Re: Notice 2003-N01

Dear Ms Duarte:

The Consumer Project on Technology (CPTech) offers the following 
comments on the request for comments on the initiative to make available 
the text of federal contracts on the Internet’s World Wide Web. We 
believe this initiative is an extremely important effort to improve the 
transparency of federal government operations, and will lead to more 
program and fiscal accountability.

Our own candidates for products that should be included in any initial 
effort would include the following:

1. Contracts associated with Homeland Security. CPTech recognizes that 
these contracts will sometimes involve issues that concern national 
security and thus will present issues concerning redactions. However, it 
may be useful to begin now to create the internal procedures for 
addressing the disclosure procedures. The Homeland Security program 
areas are new and controversial, and greater public access to the text 
of contracts in this area will allow for a more informed debate on 
Homeland Security policies. Examples of contracts that should be public 
are those relating to the creation of the Total Information Awareness 
(recently renamed the Terrorism Information Awareness) program.

2. Rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan. The occupation of Iraq and 
Afghanistan is expensive and involves important policy issues, as we 
hire contractors to help write foreign country laws and build civic and 
government institutions. Contracts related to these activities should be 
available for public inspection.

3. Federal Research Contracts. CPTech is evaluating the 
commercialization of federally funded research. It is often very time 
consuming to obtain contracts including NIH CRADA agreements using FOIA 
requests. The NIH budget is now approaching $100 per capita, and most of 
this money is spend on grants and contracts. We ask that these grants 
and contracts be available to the public. We also ask that NIH licenses 
to commercialize US government owned inventions and various cooperative 
agreements and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) 
be routinely available on the Internet.

4. USAID, USPTO, Department of Commerce and Department of State 
Technical Assistance Contracts. USAID, USPTO, DOC and DOS have 
undertaken a number of efforts to shape laws on intellectual property 
and electronic commerce in developing countries. For example, when a 
private consulting firm was hired to help write provisions of the Uganda 
patent law. Often the policies that are proposed are controversial, and 
sometimes the parties who offer the technical assistance have business 
dealings with firms that have a commercial interest in the policies – 
and often an interest that is in conflict with the interest of the 
developing country. We would like to have more transparency in this 
area, and ask that these contracts be available for inspection on the Web.

5. License Agreements for the use of software. The United States 
government is a huge licensor of software. Some believe the government 
is not doing enough to leverage its considerable market power to benefit 
the taxpayers. These contracts should be available for public inspection 
on the Web.


Sincerely


............................


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040