The "workaround" is to clear your browser's cache, cookies, and history. The Census Bureau also suggests viewing the site in either Internet Explorer 9 or 8. The Bureau and its contractor should be really, really embarrassed about this and fix it quickly.

• Workaround Solution for Redesigned American Factfinder Browser Issues. FDLP Desktop (31 January 2013).

  The U.S. Census Bureau has brought to our attention that the newly redesigned American FactFinder does not render properly in some Web browsers. Users have reported issues with various versions of Mozilla Firefox (FF) and Internet Explorer (IE).

  The Census Bureau is investigating the matter. In the meantime, their recommendation is to clear the browser's cache, cookies, and history as a temporary solution. In addition, they recommend viewing the site in either IE 9 or 8. If issues are encountered, the following instructions are specific to IE 8 and up.

  1. Click on the "Tools" icon.
  2. Select "Internet Options".
  3. Under the "General" tab, click on the "Delete" button under "Browsing history".
  4. Select the following:
     • Temporary Internet files
     • Cookies
     • History
  5. Deselect:
     • "Preserve Favorites website data"
  6. Click on the "Delete" button.

  To clear the browser cache, cookies, and history for other browsers, visit the American FactFinder FAQ or check the browser's Web site for browser-specific instructions.

  Be advised that clearing your browser's cache, cookies, and history may impact saved sessions for other Web services.

   

Twitter announced last Friday that all 100 members of the Senate as well as 90% (398 members) of the House of Representatives are on Twitter. In the 112th Congress only 44% of Senators were on Twitter. House use of Twitter has also increased from 35% to 90% (398 representatives). Twitter also announced that Michelle Obama will be tweeting from @FLOTUS about her life as First Lady.

• An entire Senate on Twitter. Really. By Joseph Marks, NextGov (January 23, 2013).

  Raw numbers can be misleading where Twitter is concerned. The federal tech sphere alone is littered with rarely used Twitter accounts. The Senate’s story seems different, though.

  A quick review of about 30 senators’ handles revealed no slackers. All of the senators -- or usually their staffs, of course -- are tweeting at least several times a week but, more importantly, a solid proportion of those tweets include content that would actually be valuable to people following the senators’ activities, such as links to legislation the lawmaker introduced, notes on committee work and alerts about media appearances.

• 100 Senators and the 57th Inauguration, Twitter Blog (January 18, 2013).
• US Senate: A public list by Twitter Government: "Principal Accounts of Members of the U.S. Senate (a mix of campaign and government accounts)."
• US House: A public list by Twitter Government: "Principal Accounts of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives (mix of campaign/govt accounts)".

The Center for Effective Government, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, was formed as OMB Watch in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In January 2013, OMB Watch became the Center for Effective Government.

• Center for Effective Government (website).
• Government Matters (newsletter)
• The Fine Print (blog)
• RSS feeds
• twitter.com/foreffectivegov
• facebook.com/foreffectivegov

The great technology publisher O'Reilly is making its Open Government book files available for free for anyone to download, read and share. The files are posted on the O’Reilly Media GitHub account as PDF, Mobi, and EPUB files for now.

• We're releasing the files for O'Reilly's Open Government book: A #PDFtribute to Aaron Swartz (announcement) by Laurel Ruma, O'Reilly Radar (January 18, 2013).
   
• Open Government: Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice, Edited By Daniel Lathrop, Laurel Ruma, Foreward by Don Tapscott. O'Reilly Media (February 2010).

Be sure to check out Chapter 25, "When Is Transparency Useful?" by Aaron Swartz.

A story in the scholarly kitchen quotes a leaked draft of a new federal government data policy saying:

...every department and agency is directed to inventory all of its funded datasets and put them all into Data.gov to the extent practicable. This is basically a fundamental change from voluntary to mandatory inclusion and from "a few of your best" to "everything you have."

Read the complete article here:

• Leaked Data Policy Raises Monster STM Data Issues, by David Wojick, the scholarly kitchen (Jan 17, 2013)

  ...there is almost no STM research data in Data.gov, just a few bits and pieces...

  All this may now change because the draft data policy takes a new approach to feeding Data.gov. Now, every department and agency is directed to inventory all of its funded datasets and put them all into Data.gov to the extent practicable. This is basically a fundamental change from voluntary to mandatory inclusion and from "a few of your best" to "everything you have."

Enhancements to U.S. Statutes at Large on FDsys, FDLP.gov (16 January 2013).

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) recently enhanced the U.S. Statutes at Large collection on FDsys by adding descriptive metadata for public laws, private laws, concurrent resolutions, and presidential proclamations. For approximately 32,000 individual documents, the enhancements allow researchers improved searchability and retrieval by searching such metadata fields as title, SuDocs classification number, date, category, etc. The U.S. Statutes at Large collection includes volumes 65–115, covering the 82nd –107th Congresses, from 1951–2002.

The additional descriptive data was added by both manual and automatic processes. A team of GPO staff members from Library Services and Content Management (LSCM), including catalogers and automation librarians, added descriptive metadata for titles, public law numbers, and dates.

• Access the U.S. Statutes at Large collection on FDsys. [scroll down on linked page]

In 2011, GPO announced the release of digitized volumes of the U.S. Statutes at Large, in partnership with the Library of Congress. The U.S. Statutes at Large is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has compiled a list of recommendations for consolidating or eliminating congressionally-mandated reports to Congress. The list is based on information supplied by the agencies themselves.

• What congressionally-mandated plans and reports did agencies propose for Congress to consider modifying in response to the GPRA Modernization Act (P.L. 111-352)?

  Federal agencies annually produce thousands of congressionally-mandated plans and reports, and some that were once useful can become outdated, duplicative, or less useful over time. Through the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010, Congress required Federal agencies to identify for elimination or consolidation plans and reports that are outdated or duplicative. Agencies identified for Congress the linked list of 376 plans and reports as potentially outdated, duplicative, or otherwise warranting modification.

• List of Reports Required by PL 111-352 [Excel file] (Also available here as a PDF file).
• OMB proposes to eliminate, consolidate 376 reports, By Jason Miller, Federal News Radio, (1/9/2013).

  OMB recommends:

  Consolidating 47 reports
  Eliminating 269 reports
  Reducing the frequency of 31
  Streamlining 29

See also:

Sources for Finding Mandated Reports to Congress by U.S. Federal Agencies, Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C., (Last updated on December 14, 2012).

The essential series Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), published by the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State, presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. The Office of the Historian has apparently finished its pilot project with producing FRUS in e-book formats (ePub and Mobi). It now is offering 108 publications during its current phase releasing e-books.

• Historical Documents > E-Books Edition, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian.

Hat tip to infoDOCKET!

The Government Accountability Office has launched a new Key Issues web site that highlights and groups GAO reports on critical issues.

• Key Issues, Government Accountability Office.

  List of topics.

  List of agencies.

  List of Collections.

• GAO Launches “Key Issues” Website to Assist New Congress and the Public, Press Release, Government Accountability Office (January 7, 2013).

  ...to provide incoming Members of Congress and the American people with quick and easy access to bodies of GAO work on issues of critical importance to the nation.

Hat tip to infoDOCKET!

Rushed Debate on Federal Spying Powers, CATO Institute, six minute video posted as "FISA: The Movie!" on the Association of Research Libraries "Policy Notes" site. A nice summary of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) domestic spying "debate" and re-authorization over the holidays.