Knowbodies

from:

SECRECY NEWS

from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Volume 2003, Issue No. 93

October 28, 2003



ACCESS TO CRS REPORTS (TEMPORARILY?) CURTAILED



Publicly accessible links from congressional web sites to an

internal database of Congressional Research Service (CRS)

reports suddenly went dead last week without explanation.

But they may yet be restored.



For about three years, the Congressional Research Service has

provided online public access to hundreds of selected reports

through a portal like this one:



http://www.house.gov/markgreen/w3ccrs.htm



No longer.



The publicly accessible CRS portals were part of a "pilot

program," explained a congressional staffer in Rep. Green's

office. "The pilot program has just expired." Goodbye, CRS

reports.



But fortunately, there's more to it than that.



Members can still opt to provide public access through their

websites to the internal database of selected CRS reports,

explained another staffer from the House Committee on House

Administration. Or they can provide online access to

individual reports of special interest, as they see fit. In

either case, they must make new arrangements through the

Administration Committee.



FAS has written to Rep. Mark Green (R-WI) and Rep. Christopher

Shays (R-CT) asking them to restore at least the same level of

access to CRS reports that their web sites have provided for

the past three years.



A selection of recent CRS reports on aspects of national

security policy, including some that were never presented in

the public database, is available on the FAS web site here:



http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/index.html