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C D T P O L I C Y P O S T
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A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES
AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
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Volume 5, Number 16 August 4, 1999
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CONTENTS:
(1) CDT and OMB Watch List the 10 Most Wanted Government Documents
(2) The Good News - Government Data Already Online
(3) Policy Recommendations and Next Steps
(4) Subscription Information
(5) About the Center for Democracy and Technology
** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner intact **
Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of ari@cdt.org
This document is also available at:
http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_5.16.html
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(1) CDT AND OMB WATCH LIST 10 MOST WANTED GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
CDT and OMB Watch on August 4 released their list of the 10 most wanted
government documents -- taxpayer-funded information that should be online
but instead is missing in action due to the government's failure to use the
Internet fully. CDT and OMB Watch, joined by supporters in Congress, will
use the list to prod all three branches of government to honor the public's
right to know.
The 10 most wanted federal government documents that need to be made
available online are:
* Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports
* Supreme Court opinions and briefs on an official Web site
* State Department daily briefing book
* EPA pesticide safety data
* full text of Congressional hearings
* DOJ court briefs
* Congressional votes in a searchable database
* Endangered species recovery plans
* Official Gazette of Trademarks
* Federal Circuit Court opinions
The list was compiled based on suggestions from researchers, librarians,
reporters, government officials and ordinary citizens who responded to a
call issued by CDT and OMB Watch in June. 200 people emailed us with
nearly 300 suggestions. We narrowed the candidates down to 10, omitting
some that we were assured would be online soon.
For full descriptions of the 10 Most Wanted, see:
http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/
For background on the right to know and the 10 Most Wanted campaign, go to:
http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/toc.html
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(2) THE GOOD NEWS - GOVERNMENT DATA ALREADY ONLINE
Giving credit where credit is due, CDT and OMB Watch also identified 5
government websites that are "on the right track" -- sites that, while they
may not be perfect, offer a wealth of useful government information.
Bookmark these sites as part of your basic research library:
http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/5ontrack.html
In researching the 10 Most Wanted list, we found that a number of the
documents that researchers and others wanted were already online. The fact
that they were hard to find highlights the need for better cataloguing,
indexing and search tools as the Internet continues to grow and more
government data becomes available. As a service to those who participated
in the survey and to the general public, we have listed where some of the
sought-after data can be found. For a fascinating tour of some of the
government data already online, go to:
http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/dataonline.html
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(3) POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS
The 10 Most Wanted project is part of a broader effort by CDT and OMB Watch
to promote government openness and the public's right to know. We are
working to encourage all three branches (and the independent federal
agencies) to make public access to government information via the Web the
rule rather than the exception. To that end, we recommend that:
* Agencies fully implement the Electronic Freedom of Information Act
amendments of 1996, which were supposed to make the government information
more readily available online. Our study found that most agencies have not
implemented E-FOIA.
* Agencies should begin to develop systems to accept and respond to FOIA
requests online.
* The Judiciary should undertake a study of openness and the new
technology, to develop a plan on how the Internet can be used to improve
citizens' awareness of the judicial process.
* Congress should make full information available (e.g. materials from
committee markups, transcripts and Web casts of hearings) and allow
citizens to interact meaningfully with their elected representatives
online. (Congressional offices largely ignore email today).
* A first step would be enactement of the Congressional Openness Act, S.
393, introduced by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Patrick Leahy (S-VT). You
can help move this bill forward by calling the Rules Committee Chair Mitch
McConnell (R-KY) at (202) 224-2541 and telling him that you want to see
more congressional information online and S.393 is the place to start.
We had orginally planned to stop collecting documents on August 1, but the
project has been so successful that we plan to keep it going indefinitely,
replacing the current ten most wanted, as they are put online, with the
others that you send in. You can make a suggestion by filling out the form
at: http://www.cdt.org/righttoknow/10mostwanted/wanted.html
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(4) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting
civil liberties! CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the
Center for Democracy and Technology, are received by Internet users,
industry leaders, policymakers, the news media and activists, and have
become the leading source for information about critical free speech and
privacy issues affecting the Internet and other interactive communications
media.
Contact Ari Schwartz at ari@cdt.org to subscribe, unsubscribe or change
your address.
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(5) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications
technologies.
Contacting us:
General information: info@cdt.org
World Wide Web: http://www.cdt.org/
Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006
(v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968
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