Congress has apparently listened to the public's complaints about lack of convenient access to government data.
The new Omnibus Appropriations Bill includes a section, introduced by Rep. Mike Honda (D-California), that would mark the first tangible move toward making federal legislative data available to the public in bulk, so third parties can mash it up and redistribute it in innovative and accessible ways.
This would include all the data currently distributed through the Library of Congress's Thomas web site -- bill status and summary information, lists of sponsors, tracking timelines, voting records, etc.
“In our web 2.0 world, we can empower the public by providing them with raw data that they can remix and reuse in new and innovative ways," says Honda, who is vice chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. "With these tools, the public can collaborate on projects that can help legislators to create better policies to address the pressing challenges facing our nation.”
Anyone who uses the Thomas site knows how clunky it can be -- data searches time out, and there's no convenient way to track changes to bills by comparing text side by side.
Although sites like Govtrack and OpenCongress improve on these limitations, the sites get their data by scraping Thomas. Their information is, therefore, limited to what can be grabbed in a scrape and isn't always up to date.
The Appropriations bill calls only for a feasibility report at this stage to assess the cost of making the data available for free to the public in bulk, but this is likely a formality, since it's assumed the cost will be small. The fact that the Appropriations Committee, which controls agency budgets, is behind the move and supports bulk distribution of data increases the likelihood that it will happen.
The main issue with the bill, which has already passed the House and is expected to hit the Senate Floor this week, will be figuring out the best way to deliver the data. To that end, Rob Pierson, Rep. Honda's online communications director, says they're interested in getting feedback from Threat Level readers.
"We'd love to hear your readers' ideas on what would be most useful to them," Pierson says. "Whether an API or some sort of bulk-data download would be useful, or perhaps both. And also what sorts of legislative-branch information are of most interest to your readers."
Pierson says he'll be monitoring comments posted here from readers.
Although the bill is focused on Library of Congress data, Pierson said it could include congressional records produced by the Government Printing Office and data from other agencies as well, or even push agencies outside of the legislative branch to go the bulk route with data.
"It's our hope that with Congress being so open with its data, it will set a precedent and model for the executive branch to follow," Pierson says.
The inspiration for the move, Pierson says, came in large part from the Sunlight Foundation, which has been urging Congress, through its Open House Project, to make records more accessible to the public. The group issued a report in May 2007 calling for bulk distribution of legislative data.
"We've been working really hard with Congress to get this, so we're happy to see this here," says John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation.
