From: Kelly Pierce 
Subject: advocate to make congress accessable to the blind
the following is a letter to place the products of the congressional 
research service on the Internet.  Currently this information is 
available only in print and either through a member of congress or from a 
commerical vendor.  On the Internet, this information will be accessable 
to the blind.  I encourage blindness organizations and blind activists 
and advocates to sign the letter below and send it to 
gary@essential.org.  Through the internet, we can have the same access to 
government as our sighted counterparts.
kelly 
     --   Please sign onto the attached letter in support of
          placing Congressional Research Service Reports and
          products on the Internet.
SUMMARY:
     The Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepares excellent
reports and research products for the U. S. Congress.  But
Congress provides few CRS products to the public via the
Internet.  
     Following is a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman
Bill Thomas (R-CA) and Senate Rules Committee Chairman John
Warner (R-VA) urging them to place CRS products on the Internet.
     We are seeking individuals and organizations who wish to
sign onto this letter.  If you would like to add your name or the
name of your organization to the signatories of this letter,
please send the following information to , by
Tuesday, July 29, 1997.
Name  ___________________________________________________
Title (optional)  _______________________________________
Affiliation (optional) __________________________________
Address _________________________________________________
City, State, Zip (very important) _______________________
e-mail address __________________________________________
     The letter follows:
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Honorable William Thomas, Chairman
Committee on House Oversight
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Honorable John Warner, Chairman
Committee on Rules
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
     RE:  Placing Congressional Research Service
          Reports and Products on the Internet
Dear Chairmen Thomas and Warner:
     On June 25th, the Joint Committee on the Library of Congress
appointed a task force consisting of Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS)
and Representative Vern Ehlers (R-MI) to recommend whether some
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and products should
be made available to the public via the Internet.  We are
concerned that the appointment of a task force will simply delay
placing CRS products on the Internet.
     As Chairmen of the internal administrative committees of the
House of Representatives and Senate, each of you has the
authority at present to place CRS products on the Internet.  Many
of these CRS products are currently available to members of
Congress and their staffs on an internal congressional intranet. 
We are writing to urge you to place all generic CRS products on
the Internet, which would improve citizens' ability to identify
and obtain them.
     The Congressional Research Service is a taxpayer-funded
research organization within the Library of Congress, with an
annual budget of nearly $63 million. It is a research arm of the
U. S. Congress, staffed by hundreds of talented independent issue
experts who prepare valuable reports and information products,
including CRS Reports, Info Packs, Issue Briefs, and Audio
Briefs.  During fiscal year 1996, CRS prepared more than 1,000
new written research products for the Congress.
     But Congress distributes few CRS products via the Internet. 
Citizens cannot obtain most CRS products directly.  Instead, we
must engage in the burdensome and time-consuming process of
requesting a member of Congress to send CRS products to us.
Often, citizens must wait for weeks or even months before such a
request is filled.  This barrier to obtaining CRS products serves
no useful purpose, and harms citizens' ability to participate in
the congressional legislative process.
     Instead of waiting for a member of Congress to send CRS
products, citizens may purchase them from a commercial vendor. 
For example, Penny Hill Press charges an annual subscription rate
of $190 per year plus $2.75 per CRS report plus 2.5 cents per
page.  Nonsubscribers pay $47 for up to five CRS reports.
     House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has repeatedly supported
placing congressional materials on the Internet.  On November 11,
1994, in a speech to the Washington Research Group Symposium, he
promised that "we will change the rules of the House to require
that all documents and all conference reports and all committee
reports be filed electronically as well as in writing and that
they cannot be filed until they are available to any citizen who
wants to pull them up.  Thus, information will be available to
every citizen in the country at the same moment it is available
to the highest paid Washington lobbyist."
     Despite Speaker Gingrich's speech more than 2 1/2 years ago,
most CRS products are available electronically only to members of
Congress and their staffs.  On June 5, 1997, CRS Director Daniel
Mulhollan boasted in testimony to Senate Appropriations
Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch that "the CRS Home Page
makes available online exclusively to congressional offices all
CRS issue briefs and numerous reports....Through our Home Page
the Congress has integrated access to a wide range of products
and information.  This service is now readily accessible
electronically to Members and staff 24 hours a day."  But not to
citizens.  
     Nothing in the statutory charter of the CRS, or any other
federal law or House or Senate rule, prevents Congress from
placing these CRS products on the Internet.  No change in federal
law, nor House nor Senate Rule is required to place CRS products
on the Internet. Neither the Joint Committee on the Library, nor
the Senate Rules Committee, nor the House Oversight Committee
need approve placing CRS products on the Internet.  This is an
internal administrative matter.  Both Chairman Thomas and
Chairman Warner separately have the authority to place CRS
products on the House and Senate World Wide Web sites.  
     Although the 105th and 104th Congresses have made an effort
to place some congressional documents on the Internet, many
important Congressional materials are still not available on the
Internet, including most committee prints and discussion drafts
of bills, chairman's marks, voting records in a non-partisan
database, most transcripts of hearings, financial disclosure
reports, texts of committee and floor amendments, transcripts of
committee mark-ups, franked mass mailings, lobbyist disclosure
reports, Statements of Disbursements of the House, and Secretary
of the Senate reports.
     In his House and Senate testimony, CRS Director Mulhollan
highlighted the benefits that the CRS provides to new members of
Congress.   He noted that CRS "offer[s] assistance tailored to
the unique needs of new Members."  Many of those needs are for
general briefing materials on substantive and procedural matters. 
Such briefing materials could be of great use to citizens as
well.  James Madison aptly described the need for such public
information when he wrote that "A popular government, without
popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a
Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both.  Knowledge
will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their
own Governors, must arm themselves with the power that knowledge
gives."  
      The Congressional Research Service produces some of the
best research in the federal government.  We believe that
taxpayers ought to be able to read the research that we pay for. 
We urge you to place these valuable CRS products -- including CRS
Reports, Info Packs, Issue Briefs, and Audio Briefs -- on the
Internet.
                                             Sincerely,
Gary Ruskin, Director, Congressional Accountability Project
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
Lori Fena, Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Shabbir J. Safdar, Co-founder, Voters Telecommunications Watch
Audrie Krause, Executive Director, NetAction
Lucinda Sikes, Staff Attorney, Public Citizen Litigation Group
Kim Alexander, Executive Director, California Voter Foundation
cc:  Honorable Conrad Burns
     Honorable Thad Cochran
     Honorable Vernon Ehlers
     Honorable Newt Gingrich
     Honorable Ted Stevens
     Honorable Rick White
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     The Congressional Accountability Project is a Ralph Nader
congressional reform group.  For more information about online
access to congressional documents, or other congressional reform
issues, send e-mail to  or call (202) 296-2787.
To subscribe to Congressional Reform Briefings send the message:
subscribe CONG-REFORM your name
to listproc@essential.org
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
Gary Ruskin
Congressional Accountability Project	|   Internet:	gary@essential.org
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 3A
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787  Fax: (202) 833-2406
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