"Peter E. Pflaum, Ph.D. Institute for Human Resources (904) 428-9609
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Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 20:26:06 -0800
From: Bill Humphries <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PEN-L:3618] Gingrich's Public Access Initiative
 
>Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 19:33:21 -0500
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>From: Michael Ward <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Gingrich's Public Access Initiative
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>Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List
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>TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
>CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Congressional Information
>January 4, 1995
>
>      Update on Access to Congressional Information
>      James Love ([log in to unmask])
>      January 3, 1995
>
>In an earlier tap-info post, Gary Ruskin and myself circulated a
>letter regarding the House republicans' plans for a new system
>of providing citizen access to Congressional Information.  The
>letter, which supported access far beyond the information
>currently disseminated through the GPO Access program, was sent
>to Representatives Newt Gingrich ([log in to unmask]) and
>Vern Ehlers ([log in to unmask]) on December 21, with more
>than 800 signatures.  This note is an update on this issue.
>Highlights:
>
>-    House Leadership announces plans to use the Library of
>     Congress (LOC) to provide a centralized gateway to a "vast
>     array of information."  Plan raises questions about the
>     future of the GPO Access program.
>
>-    Initial product line for new Library of Congress gateway
>     will be limited, consisting of many items that are
>     currently available from GPO, the Library of Congress or
>     the House of Representatives.  House republicans indicate
>     that the product line will expand in the future.  Access to
>     documents will be free.
>
>-    Future of Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) in doubt.  All
>     majority and professional staff are fired before Christmas.
>     Action is further indication that House republicans will
>     support a reduced role for the Government Printing Office
>     (GPO) in disseminating federal information, and suggests
>     that GPO may be stripped of its role as central
>     disseminater of many executive branch documents.
>
>On December 20, 1994, Representative Jim Nussle (R-IA) of the
>Republican Transition Team and Representative Bill Thomas (R-
>CA), the "Chair-elect" of the Joint Committee on Printing,
>wrote letters to Public Printer Michael DiMario, who runs the
>GPO, and Terry Nugent, the Director of the House Information
>Systems (HIS), announcing that as part of the "GOP Open House"
>reforms, "we envision the Library of Congress as the gateway to
>make a vast array of information available to the country."  The
>letters ask the two agencies to provide the Library of Congress
>with the following documents:
>
>     from GPO
>       *  Bills and Resolutions for the 104th Congress
>       *  Congressional Record
>     from HIS
>       *  the House Daily Calendar
>       *  Daily Committee Meetings
>       *  Summary of Floor Proceedings
>       *  Bills Considered Today
>       *  Summary of Floor Debate
>       *  Vote summaries
>
>The initial product line for the new LOC system fell short of
>what Gingrich had promised, and several items are already
>available to the public for free, although access is often
>congested.  For example, the Bills and the Congressional Record
>are already available for free from the GPO Access program,
>through free dissemination programs run by a handful of federal
>depository libraries, but not from GPO directly.  Other items on
>the list, such as vote "summaries," which will show totals for
>and against measures, fall short of the full voting records
>which identify particular member votes (although House role call
>reports are reported in the Congressional Record).
>Conspicuously missing from the list are such items as verbatim
>hearing transcripts, House Reports and communications, Federal
>Elections Commission (FEC) campaign contribution reports,
>Congressional Research Service (CRS) issue briefs, financial
>disclosure or lobbying reports, member fax and email addresses,
>or other items of broad interest.  The modest initial product
>line is understandable given the brief time, however, and some
>House republicans leaders have indicated that the system will
>grow over time.
>
>As a cautionary note, it should be mentioned that Gingrich's
>announcement about new dissemination programs have met stiff
>resistance among some commercial data vendors and republicans
>who have sought privatization of the dissemination of government
>information.  For example, a November 22 report in the BNA
>Washington Insider quoted one opponent of Gingrich's
>announcement as saying "Excuse me, Mr. Private Sector Advocate,
>but why should the government do this?"  There have been a
>number of reports that the private vendors are lobbying the
>republicans to tone down the dissemination project, or at least
>limit it to Congressional information only.
>
>The House republican's announcement that it would use the
>Library of Congress rather than the Government Printing Office
>(GPO) as a "gateway" for online access to government information
>raises important questions about the future of the GPO, which
>has been charged with providing the same service.  The GPO
>Access program, which became operational in July 1994, was
>earlier criticized by TAP and others for charging fees that
>prevented most citizens from having access to the service (such
>as $375 for access to the Congressional Record).  The GPO
>decision to charge user fees was largely driven by House
>republican opposition to government funding for the program.
>These republicans insisted that the program not cost the
>taxpayers anything.  TAP asked GPO to provide a "free-after-six"
>program (free access for off-peak use, from 6pm to 8am) to
>expand access.
>
>GPO responded to the criticism of its prices with a program of
>free 24 hour per day access to the entire GPO Access program,
>provided indirectly by selected federal depository libraries.
>The free dissemination project appears to be working well,
>although the small number of free nodes has resulted in
>congestion at peak hours.  Moreover, because the public cannot
>obtain free access directly from GPO, there appears to be
>considerable confusion about the program, and many news reports
>about government sponsored online services fail to mention GPO
>Access.  [Such as Mike Christensen's (Cox News Service) recent
>"Federal agencies hook on Internet" report.]
>
>GPO is a agency which is confronted with criticism from a number
>of fronts.  Commercial data vendors have tried for decades to
>prevent GPO from making a transition from a print to an
>electronic publisher.  The Information Industry Association
>(IIA), a vendor trade association, first opposed GPO's use of
>microfiche, and later opposed the agency's entry into electronic
>publishing.  These data vendors have been particularly opposed
>to GPO because it is the only federal agency with a mandate to
>provide centralized access to documents from all three branches
>of government, and many commercial CD-ROM and online products
>exist in part because GPO has been slow to make the transition
>to electronic publishing.
>
>Vice-President Gore and the Office of Management and Budget
>(OMB) have also been foes of GPO, attaching the current legal
>provisions that require federal agencies to use GPO to "print"
>documents.  Vice-President Gore has attacked GPO as a monopoly
>printer, a charge which is largely rhetorical since about 80
>percent of GPO printing is done by the private sector through an
>extremely competitive bidding system (which private printers do
>not like, because it is too competitive).  Vice-President Gore
>also wants to encourage agencies to use new Xerox printing on
>demand machines, which can produce a book in press runs as small
>as 1.  Many executive branch agencies resent having to work with
>GPO on printing contracts, or want to "sell" information at
>prices in excess of that allowed under GPO pricing rules.
>
>Many key House republicans have long been sympathetic to the
>vendor's interests, and have also been critical of GPO for its
>use of a highly unionized work force for the 20 percent of the
>printing which is done in-house.  (GPO has been accused of being
>"infected" with unions).
>
>GPO's only friends have been the library community, which is
>concerned that a highly decentralized system of printing or
>dissemination will lead to a plethora of problems, such as
>failures to participate in the federal depository library
>program (1,400 libraries which receive GPO publications for
>free), failures to include publications in centralized catalogs
>or indexes, pricing information products and services far above
>cost, failures to archive data, and the privatization of
>important public records.
>
>In general, professional librarians have expressed concerns over
>the federal government's failure to think systematically about
>"collections" of data, pointers, indexes, and locators, archives
>and other services, which cost money, and are key to the
>professional management of public records.  [The American
>Library Association (202/547-4440 for the Washington Office) and
>other library groups monitor these issues.]
>
>By choosing the Library of Congress (LOC) as the "gateway" to a
>vast array of government information, the house republican
>transition team has chosen an agency which has an excellent
>reputation for records management, and is not encumbered by
>disputes over its printing operations.  By announcing that
>public access would be free and comprehensive, the House
>republican leadership appears to have reversed decades of
>support for privatization of information dissemination, and
>taken a highly populist and popular position.  Among those
>members who support the new populist initiative are
>Representative Vern Ehlers (R-Mich, [log in to unmask]), a
>physicist who reportedly pushed the Michigan legislature to put
>its information online, and Representative Dick Zimmer (R-NJ,
>[log in to unmask]), who supported public access to the House
>of Representatives LEGIS system in the last congress.  According
>to documents released by the Republican transition team, the key
>House staffer for the new dissemination initiative is Rich
>Pournelle (202/225-8281), from the Committee on House Oversight.
>[One person who also likely deserves credit for the new
>initiative is Jim Warren, the California based venture
>capitalist, computer columnist, and online citizen activist who
>has successfully undertaken and promoted high profile grass
>roots campaigns for free internet access to state legislative
>information.]
>
>However, the House republicans are still largely talking in
>terms of Congressional information, and there have been no
>public statements regarding systems for obtaining public access
>to information from the Executive and Judicial branches of
>government.  Indeed, there are early unofficial reports that the
>Gingrich initiative will purposely exclude federal court
>decisions, which will help West Publishing continue its
>monopolistic control over the official text and citations for
>most federal case law.  Citizens are encouraged to contact
>Gingrich ([log in to unmask]) or Rich Pournelle (202/225-
>8281, [log in to unmask]) to remedy this important omission.
>
>TAP intends to press for the new republican Congress to address
>the issue of broader access to information all three branches of
>government.  Specifically, TAP will encourage the Congress to
>develop separate dissemination plans for the Executive
>
>james love (202/387-8030; [log in to unmask])
>TAP
>
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>From Letterman's Top 10 Ways Hillary Clinton Can Raise Her Popularity, 7/28:
#4. Call Rush Limbaugh on the air and say, "Can it, Fat Boy."