Sen. Lieberman to Congress: Free the CRS Reports

Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports have long among the most sought after unclassified government documents. Despite the fact that these documents are produced with taxpayer money, they have been deliberately kept from easy public accessibility despite repeated calls to "Free CRS Documents." CRS, which generates detailed reports relevant to current political events for lawmakers, are freely available to the public, but only through the arcane process of specifically requesting them from a member of Congress or seek them out on third-party websites. There have been many proposals to free CRS reports, but so far nothing has worked better than asking the public to put together reports at Open CRS. Whereas years ago, you had to buy these reports from resellers or ask your legislator for a paper copy, now many recent CRS reports are available online at Open CRS or other collections. Senator Lieberman has long been an advocate for public access to CRS reports, and his newest letter urges Sen. Schumer as chair of the Committee on Rules and Administration to become an advocate as well. Last week, Sen. Lieberman asked the courts to step up in terms of openness as well as personal privacy on their PACER service – the Senator is on a roll! We’re encouraged by this letter, and hopefully the 111th Congress will finally free CRS reports. Given that many recent CRS reports are now available on third-party websites, it only makes sense to make them available-onlin–from the government. As Sen.Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports have long among the most sought after unclassified government documents. Despite the fact that these documents are produced with taxpayer money, they have been deliberately kept from easy public accessibility despite repeated calls to "Free CRS Documents." CRS, which generates detailed reports relevant to current political events for lawmakers, are freely available to the public, but only through the arcane process of specifically requesting them from a member of Congress or seek them out on third-party websites. There have been many proposals to free CRS reports, but so far nothing has worked better than asking the public to put together reports at Open CRS. Whereas years ago, you had to buy these reports from resellers or ask your legislator for a paper copy, now many recent CRS reports are available online at Open CRS or other collections. Senator Lieberman has long been an advocate for public access to CRS reports, and his newest letter urges Sen. Schumer as chair of the Committee on Rules and Administration to become an advocate as well. Last week, Sen. Lieberman asked the courts to step up in terms of openness as well as personal privacy on their PACER service – the Senator is on a roll! We’re encouraged by this letter, and hopefully the 111th Congress will finally free CRS reports. Given that many recent CRS reports are now available on third-party websites, it only makes sense to make them available – onlin–from the government. As Sen. Lieberman notes, it is high time for an officially sanctioned, free way to distribute the reports to the people.