Congress forms Caucus on Transparency: Plans to Focus on Education, Legislation, and Oversight

Today, Reps. Michael Quigley (D-IL) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced the creation of the bipartisan Congressional Transparency Caucus in the House of Representatives.  The Caucus will work to develop policies and data standards that will give Americans better abilities to scrutinize the actions of government.

A big positive thing to note about this caucus is that it has identified issues in both the executive and legislative branches.  All too often Congressional transparency initiatives focus on the executive while ignoring their own transparency.  A March 2010 letter by Quigley and Issa states, “federal agencies and Congress have failed to publish their records and information online, including proposed laws and regulations, and budget and performance data.”  The recognition of the need for publication of “proposed laws and resolutions” is especially heartening.  Although President Obama promised to post non-emergency legislation to the White House website days before his signing of it, the measure is relatively meaningless because the legislation has already passed Congress and the public can no longer have an impact on its content.

Further, Congress has realized that changes are required not just in law and regulations but also in the overall culture of secrecy in government.  This was a key component of recommendations made by the coalition of groups organized by OMB Watch published the November 2009 report, Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know.  The caucus announced that it was making education its chief priority followed by legislation and oversight.

The full set of principles as stated by the caucus are:

  • The American people have the right to public access to all of their government's information.
  • The American people have a right to analyze their government's information.
  • The American people have a right to interactive access to federal laws, regulations, & rules.
  • The American people have the right to demand objective, transparent performance standards for all federal agencies.
  • The American people have the right to agressive, independent oversight.
  • We must institutionalize a culture of open government.

We laud this important initiative by Congress that displays its commitment to creating a more transparent government.  We believe that its bipartisan nature shows that transparency is not a party issue.  We hope that this caucus will work closely with the administration to further the recommendations of the right-to-know community, many of which call for Congressional as well as executive branch action.

 

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