When new leadership takes control in the 110th Congress, the public may finally gain routine online access to finished products of the Congressional Research Service.
The prospects for adopting this simple change in disclosure policy are enhanced by the fact that such a move would not require Bush Administration concurrence.
For the time being, however, congressional policy prohibits direct public access to CRS reports.
Some notable new CRS reports obtained by Secrecy News that are not otherwise available online include the following (all pdf).
“Intelligence Estimates: How Useful to Congress?”, November 21, 2006.
“Iraqi Civilian Deaths Estimates,” November 22, 2006.
“Televising Supreme Court and Other Federal Court Proceedings: Legislation and Issues,” updated November 8, 2006.
“Anti-Terrorism Authority Under the Laws of the United Kingdom and the United States,” September 7, 2006.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.
We sat down with Dr. Max Moritz and Chief Rob Hazard to discuss how communities use time, money, and data to reduce the risk that wildfires pose.
The Colorado Future Systems Policy Sprint is FAS’s first state-level policy sprint. Policy sprints are key incubators for “policy entrepreneurship,” FAS’s method for equipping individuals with strong ideas with the technical assistance to develop policy.