Quigley, Cummings Transparency Bill Passes House Committee

WASHINGTON -- Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform unanimously passed a bill introduced by U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Elijah Cummings (MD-7) to make all reports written for Congress by federal agencies available to the public.

The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act - H.R. 1974 - creates a single website where the public can easily search, sort and download all congressional reports from agencies ranging from the Food and Drug Administration to the Department of Justice.

"Thousands of reports to Congress containing vital information are sitting on shelves collecting dust," said Quigley. "Today is an important step toward passing a bill that ensures government's business is done transparently and is accountable to the people it serves."

"One of our most important jobs as a Congress is to ensure that every American knows what is happening in Washington, DC; that every American has the ability to read the same information about their nation that we do; and that every American knows that we are making efforts towards transparency that can help encourage trust in our government," said Cummings.

"The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act is a straightforward solution toward improving government transparency and empowering better public oversight of how well government agencies fulfill their missions," said Ellen Miller, co-founder and executive director of the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation. "This legislation embodies the Sunlight Foundation's ethos that in the Internet age, government information is not truly public unless it is easily accessible online."

Congressionally mandated reports contain a wealth of information that enable the public to better understand how well federal agencies are (or are not) fulfilling their respective missions, from ensuring the safety of our drugs and food supply, to protecting the environment, and monitoring the soundness of our financial institutions.

The Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act calls for any report required by statute to be issued to Congress and releasable under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to be posted on a website managed by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). The reports would be available no later than 30 days after their transmission to Congress.

The bill's original co-sponsors include Reps. William Lacy Clay (MO-1), Stephen Lynch (MA-9), Edolphus Towns (NY-10), Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC), and Jim Cooper (TN-5). It now awaits consideration by the full House of Representatives.

Quigley also passed an amendment this morning to the DATA Act, which creates a single website for tracking all federal spending including grants, contracts, and loans. The amendment requires an independent board to determine the feasibility of including tax expenditures - essentially tax earmarks that amount to $1.2 trillion annually - in the new online database.

Congressman Quigley has been committed to good government reform in his two terms in Congress. He founded the bipartisan Transparency Caucus, and introduced a bill to provide every taxpayer with a receipt detailing how their tax dollars are spent. He recently released Reinventing Government: The Federal Budget Parts I and II to establish transparency in the budget process and offered 60 recommendations to save $2 trillion over the next 10 years.