CRS Reports to the People! Part II
My earlier post, CRS Reports to the People!, dealt with which congressmen to contact and which congressmen sponsored what bills in the past, etc. But now I would like to offer some sample letters that you can emulate and send. I sent all of mine just after the inauguration of President Obama and will let you know what kinds of responses I get. Here is a sample letter to send to those who have sponsored similar bills about publicly releasing all CRS Reports in the past (be sure to refer to my previous post that lists all these bills and their sponsors in your letter!):
The Honorable [full name] [Room #] [Name] Senate [or] House Office Building United States House of Representatives [or] United States Senate Washington, DC 20515 Dear Senator: or Dear Representative: Due to your [introduction/co-sponsorship] of BILL [X], I am writing to seek your support yet again in addressing the need for making Congressional Research Service Reports available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, yet it remains cumbersome to acquire these informative reports. Several libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible. Unfortunately, there is no feasible way to obtain all CRS reports, therefore, I believe that it would be best if Congress made all CRS Reports available to the public online. President Obama has demonstrated and fosters the spirit of open access and transparency during his administration, as a Government Documents Librarian and contributor for the Free Government Information website [list your credentials, affiliations, etc. or simply say "as a tax paying citizen], I strongly believe that there is no greater time than now to address the need for the availability of these educational and beneficial reports to the public. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, [Your Name] [Your official title/degree credentials] [Contact Address and Email]If the Congressmen you are writing to have not sponsored a bill related to the public release of all CRS Reports, then use this nearly identical form letter:
The Honorable [full name] [Room #] [Name] Senate [or] House Office Building United States House of Representatives [or] United States Senate Washington, DC 20515 Dear Senator: or Dear Representative: I am writing to seek your support in addressing the need for making Congressional Research Service Reports available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. Previous bills addressing this topic have been introduced by Congressmen, but were unsuccessful. Most recently, these included H.R. 2545 (2007) and S. Res. 401 (2007). American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, yet it remains cumbersome to acquire these informative reports. Several libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible. Unfortunately, there is no feasible way to obtain all CRS reports, therefore, I believe that it would be best if Congress made all CRS Reports available to the public. President Obama has demonstrated and fosters the spirit of open access and transparency during his administration, as a Government Documents Librarian and contributor for the Free Government Information website [list your credentials, affiliations, etc. or simply say "as a tax paying citizen], I strongly believe that there is no greater time than now to address the need for the availability of these educational and beneficial reports to the public. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your reply. Sincerely, [Your Name] [Your official title/degree credentials] [Contact Address and Email]Continue reading
Won’t Get Fooled Again: Day 19
Now that the Senate is close to a vote on the stimulus bill -- and we all know what a slugfest the conference committee is going to be as the two Congressional chambers work through their differences -- I think this could be another one of those "teaching moments" for our communities, let of course by government information librarians. Blogs are good, guides are good; but how about if a collection of public libraries and academic libraries banded together to put on a one or two hour program the describes the various intricacies of the legislation and how folks can get the information from the web. This can be done, considering how much energy we put into explaining tax forms and how to find ancestors. See you Day 20. Continue reading
Agencies used social media to manage salmonella outbreak
Do you remember not that long ago when, if you said "blog" to a colleague, you had to explain that a blog was a tool and not all blogs were done by teenage girls putting their diaries online? That was my experience anyway. It takes a while for people to figure out the difference between the tool and the media's depiction of one popular way the tool is used. The buzzword of the day is no longer "blogs" -- now everyone knows that everyone from the CBO to NASA has blogs. Today the tool we have to make sure people understand is "social media" -- an all-encompassing fuzzy term that covers everything from wikis to FaceBook, collaboration tools, communication tools, multimedia tools, and more. See the nice overview at Wikipedia. Now that these tools are being used by government agencies, it is important for us to understand them as another group of channels of information dissemination. The recent outbreak of salmonella tainted peanut butter, gave agencies an opportunity to demonstrate the use of social media tools and gives us an opportunity to see this in action.
- Agencies used social media to manage salmonella outbreak, By Gautham Nagesh, NextGov 02/09/2009.
The agencies started by brainstorming ideas via conference call on how social media could be used, said Dick Stapleton, deputy director of the Web communications and the new media division at HHS. He said the calls were "very rewarding." HHS, FDA and CDC officials decided how to build on each other's social media experiences. "We tried to use every available form of media," Stapleton said.Continue reading
Cloud Computing In Government
Cloud Computing In Government: From Google Apps To Nuclear Warfare, by John Foley, InformationWeek, Feb, 9, 2009.
Jackson says interest in cloud computing is high among government agencies, which see it as a way to cut costs and speed time to deployment. "There are requests for quotations and RFIs coming out, and we're responding to a lot of them," he says.Continue reading
Compare Stimulous Bills Side-by-Side
GovTrack has set up a page where you can find comparisons of the text of H.R. 1, the stimulus bill, at different stages in its legislative life --- including the House version (as passed) and the current Senate version (amendment 570). Thanks Josh Tauberer!
See also The main page on GovTrack for HR 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Continue reading