SHOULD THE PUBLIC GET CONGRESS' RESEARCH REPORTS?

Edited by Douglas Harbrecht

A group of senators is trying to make Congressional Research Service reports available free to the public over the Internet.

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.), and John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) introduced legislation on Jan. 28 to give members of the public direct access for the first time to research reports done for members of Congress.

The CRS is a division of the Library of Congress. Members of the House and Senate can ask the CRS to provide information and detailed analysis of policy issues. Currently, the CRS does not release its reports but instead issues briefs to the public. However, members of Congress are permitted to pass along the information to constituents.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, calls the legislation "a common-sense proposal that accelerates and simplifies the public's access to high-quality, taxpayer-funded reports over the Internet."

Supporters say the CRS research should be more readily available to the public because taxpayers underwrite the service to the tune of about $65 million a year. Public-interest groups say Americans have a right to freer and faster access to public documents. Among the backers of the proposal, says McCain, are America Online, IBM, Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, and the League of Women Voters. A companion House bill is authored by Representative Christopher Shays (R-Conn.).

The CRS has expressed constitutional reservations about the proposal. CRS officials fear that Internet release of the service's work might not be cloaked in the blanket immunity from libel and slander that Congress receives under the Constitution's Speech & Debate Clause. The CRS also has concerns about copyright protections and being inundated with public requests.

An aide to McCain says the bill's sponsors are trying to allay those fears by prohibiting the public from asking the CRS questions about its reports and by allowing the service the discretion not to release material it considers confidential.

McCain says the legislation would "promote an informed, educated public.... The Internet provides an ideal way to inform the public while not distracting the CRS from its primary mission to serve Congress."

By Richard S. Dunham in Washington