Conservative Leader Urges Public Access to CRS Reports
Paul M. Weyrich, the influential culture warrior who leads the arch-conservative Free Congress Foundation, has called upon Congress to grant public access to products of the Congressional Research Service.
“It seems to me that it is time to end the foolishness and just make the CRS website available to the general public,” Mr. Weyrich wrote in a new commentary.
Does Mr. Weyrich’s endorsement of public access to CRS reports imply that continued restrictions on such access might actually be desirable? Of course not.
Here are some recent acquisitions (all pdf).
“The Executive Office of the President: An Historical Overview,” updated November 28, 2006.
“Radioactive Tank Waste from the Past Production of Nuclear Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress,” updated January 3, 2007.
“United Nations Reform: U.S. Policy and International Perspectives,” January 22, 2007.
No one will be surprised if we end up with a continuing resolution to push our shutdown deadline out past the midterms, so the real question is what else will they get done this summer?
Rebuilding public participation starts with something simple — treating the public not as a problem to manage, but as a source of ingenuity government cannot function without.
If the government wants a system of learning and adaptation that improves results in real time, it has to treat translation, utilization, and adaptation as core functions of governance rather than as afterthoughts.
Coordination among federal science agencies is essential to ensure government-wide alignment on R&D investment priorities. However, the federal R&D enterprise suffers from egregious siloization.