Congressman Steve Israel Introduces Landmark Transparency Bill
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Sunlight FoundationCongressman Steve Israel Introduces Landmark Transparency Bill
Uploaded by
Sunlight Foundationc
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March 16, 2010c
Contact:
Gabriela Schneider
Communications Director
The Sunlight Foundation
[email protected]
202-742-1520 ext 236
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Ñ SHINGTON, DC ±cCongressman Steve Israel (NY-02) introduced a banner piece of
legislation today in an effort to make public government information available to all mericans
online. This bill, the Public Online Information ct (POI ), is an effort to remedy the fact that
significant quantities of government data sets are designated as ³public,´ but are hard to find,
and sometimes difficult to read. POI will ensure that government information from across all
agencies will be available to everyone within a few keystrokes on a computer.
POI would mandate that executive branch agencies publish all publicly available information
online in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats within three years after the bill is
signed. The bill also creates a new panel that brings together all branches of government to
create guidelines for information sharing. The legislation requires each agency to establish a
searchable catalog of all disclosed public documents. Finally, the bill would give the merican
people the right to petition the government for certain information, much like the Freedom of
Information ct (FOI ) does.
³Right now, our government will stamp something µpublic¶ and lock it away in a warehouse in
Maryland. That's about as accessible and transparent as a nuclear missile silo," said Rep.
Israel. ³It¶s time for µpublic¶ to mean something different. My bill will require that all executive
branch agencies make their public documents easily available online. People across the
country ± from scholars to school children ± should be able to see any public government
information from the convenience of their computer.´
³The Sunlight Foundation is proud to support the Public Online Information ct, legislation
that embraces a new formula for transparency: public equals online,´ said Ellen Miller,
executive director and co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation. ³Ñe commend Rep. Israel for
his work to ensure that government information will be available to everyone within a few
keystrokes on a computer.´
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Examples of information that is required by law to be public but is not available online include:
r Pension plan annual filings with the Secretary of Labor on how their plans are funded, and
the underlying assumptions behind their investment strategies.
r Reports disclosing lobbying activities (SF-LLLs) by government contractors and grantees
made in connection with winning a grant.
r Filings by high level government officials of their personal financial interests.
r Reports of when executive branch officials travel is paid for by third-parties, and not the
government.
The legislation includes a sunrise provision that would mandate that only newly created data
be released after enactment, not government data previously released. In addition, POI
would give government agencies three years to build the capacity and regulations needed to
comply with POI . Finally, POI would allow certain commonsense exceptions for disclosure
such as documents that fulfill national security specification.
The bill is expected to be referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform. To date, more than 25 organizations have called for congressional hearings on
POI , including: ssociation For Community Networking ( FCN), Brennan Center, Center for
Democracy and Technology, Center for Media and Democracy, Center for Responsive
Politics, Change Congress, Chicago Digital ccess lliance, CREÑ, Essential Information,
Federation of merican Scientists, Free Press, Government ccountability Project , Illinois
Community Technology Coalition (ilCTC), Institute for Policy Innovation, iSolon, Legal
Information Institute, Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, National Coalition for
History, OMB Ñatch, Open the Government, Personal Democracy Forum, The Project on
Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Public.Resource.Org, The Sunlight Foundation, US
PIRG, ÑashingtonÑatch.org.
Further information on the bill can be found at http://thePOI .org. n animation of explaining
why POI is necessary and how it works is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD8dT236aS4 and embeddable using this code:
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value="always"></param><embed
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width="560" height="340"></embed></object>
The Sunlight Foundation is a non-partisan non-profit that uses cutting-edge technology and ideas to make
government transparent and accountable. Visit http://SunlightFoundation.com to learn more about
Sunlight¶s projects, including http://PoliticalPartyTime.org and http://OpenCongress.org.
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