A Government By The People Should Be Open To The People
At a time in our history when many believe that our government is becoming less transparent, I am proud to say that the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress took steps to make our government more accessible this week.
The bipartisan Select Committee unanimously passed our first round of recommendations focusing on measures to increase transparency in the legislative branch.
These recommendations aim to give the American public greater access to the inner-workings of Congress — and thereby a stronger voice in our government.
Earlier this month, the Select Committee held a hearing titled “Opening up the Process: Recommendations for Making Legislative Information More Transparent.” Joined by four expert witnesses on government accountability and transparency, the Committee discussed and highlighted transparency efforts underway in the House, the value of making legislative information more transparent, and the effect of transparency on the deliberative process in Congress. Many of the recommendations included in this week’s package stem from these conversations, as well as prior suggestions from current and former members of Congress and staff.
These recommendations include:
- Adopting one standardized format for drafting, viewing, and publishing legislation;
- Completing a project to allow the comparison of legislation, and training staff, so that is easier for Americans to understand how amendments change legislation, and the impact of proposed legislation to current law;
- Modernizing the lobbying disclosure system to improve the filing process and more easily find and track individual disclosures;
- Developing a centralized, electronic HUB that would list all federal agency and program reauthorization expiration dates, by committee;
- And developing a centralized, electronic HUB of committee votes that would be accessible via House.gov and in machine readable format.
The recommendations and a report will be sent to the respective committees of jurisdiction for next steps. The Committee plans to offer additional recommendations on a rolling basis throughout the remainder of the year on a range of topics from staff retention to technology updates.
The American people deserve a government that is accessible and transparent, honest, and forthright. It is my commitment to continue working with my colleagues to ensure that we make progress in that regard.
I am always eager to hear from you on the best ways to ensure that our government is more accessible.
