Ever wonder what information Congress knows but doesn’t voluntary share with the public? A new website is aiming to mine the depths of Congressional reports to open the door to unclassified but difficult to find information.
The Congressional Research Service is a branch of the Library of Congress operating on a $100 million annual taxpayer funded budget. It is a think tank operating solely for Congress to provide information on everything from global warming to Social Security.
Typically, these reports, often used for debate, are not classified, but they are somewhat controlled by Congressman discretion, available only when a member of Congress decides to make the report public or when a citizen specifically requests a report.
Lawmakers are not prevented by any law from sharing the reports with the public via any media channel so long as the information isn’t classified.
The new website provides links to existing CRS reports, creating an online database of some 8,000 previously made public reports. Visitors can search the reports using specific search terms.
The database is intended to put pressure on Congress to make access to Congressional reports more available.
“This initiative ought to embarrass the Congress into changing its policy and making these documents universally available,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the project on government secrecy for the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists, according to the Associated Press.
Jill Brett, a spokeswoman for the Library of Congress said there was no objection to making the reports public.
“It’s up to Congress when they’re made public and how they’re made public,” Brett said. “The law says we only make them available to Congress.”
