Show Us the Data: The Most Wanted Government Documents

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Most Requested Legislative Branch Documents

1. 505

   Votes

   CRS Reports

   The Congressional Research Service (CRS) uses taxpayer dollars to produce excellent reports on public policy issues ranging from foreign affairs to agriculture to health care. These reports are posted online, but on an internal system available only to Congressional offices through a password. Citizens can ask for these reports through their member of Congress, but they must know that the report exists. Currently, reports are sold by third parties or made available, when possible, by advocacy groups and others. Congress should make CRS release these reports to the public proactively and directly.

2. 247

   Votes

   Exhaustive List of Congressional Members Votes

   Voting records are public information and yet countless members of Congress continue to make efforts to prevent the creation of a government sponsored website. Numerous effective third-party websites exist, but in the interest of full disclosure and open government, an official Congressional sponsored website is vital.

3. 44

   Votes

   GAO legislative histories (1915 - present)

   The digitization of this rich historical chunk of GAO information (20,597 legislative histories of most public laws from 1915-1995!!) has been contacted out to Thomson-West -- who will have exclusive license to the data. For more background on this goldmine of govt information, see http://freegovinfo.info/taxonomy/term/488

Recently Requested Legislative Branch Documents

1. 10

   Votes

   Daily Schedules of Members of Congress

   I want to know what our elected representatives are doing with their time and our money? Are they meeting with lobbyists or constituents? The House and the Senate should require members to post daily schedules on their official websites.

2. 9

   Votes

   "fact sheet" provided by lobbyists to members of Congress

3. 14

   Votes

   Unprinted Hearings

   Not every Congressional hearing that's held is printed. The U.S. Senate Bibliographies (compiled at NCSU Libraries) lists unprinted Senate hearings from the 103rd-108th Congresses (http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/congbibs/senate/index.html). If hearings are not printed - that is, published in print and disseminated to depository libraries OR published on GPO Access/FDsys - U.S. citizens are denied the right to understand this crucial aspect of the legislative process.