House, Government Printing Office Increase Access to Legislative Data

By Emily

The Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives has expanded its docs.house.gov site to include committee information such as committee rules, bills and resolutions to be considered, recorded votes, meeting notices, witness lists and testimony. Visitors can subscribe to Committee RSS feeds and download the XML for reuse. In addition, the Government Printing Office (GPO) is now making bills in XML format available for bulk download through FDsys, from the 113th Congress forward. These efforts advance the transparency goals put forward in the 112th Congress by the House leadership and House Report 112-511, which established the Bulk Data Task Force.

AALL submitted feedback to the Bulk Data Task Force late last year, recommending that a disclaimer and link to FDsys be included along with any legislative information that is posted for bulk download. We urged the Clerk to follow the example set by the White House, GPO and the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of the Federal Register in adding a disclaimer to the XML of the Federal Register on Data.gov, which clearly states that the XML is not official. We are pleased that the new Help section of docs.house.gov includes the following questions along with a “Legal Status and Authenticity” section as part of the FAQ:

Q. What is available on docs.house.gov?

A. Text of legislation that may be considered on the House Floor is posted on docs.house.gov. Committee documents in accordance with the standards adopted by the Committee on House Administration are posted on docs.house.gov.

If available, both the PDF version and XML version of a document are posted. Documents follow the House’s document naming convention. If the documents have been processed by U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), there may be direct links to GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDSys).

 Q. What is the authenticity of data files from docs.house.gov after they have been downloaded to another site?

A. We cannot vouch for the authenticity of data that is not under the control of the U.S. House. The U.S. House does not endorse third party applications, and does not evaluate how our original content is displayed on other sites. Consumers should form their own conclusions as to whether the downloaded data can be relied upon within an application or its enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data.

AALL supports access in many formats. We commend the Office of the Clerk for clarifying the authenticity of the XML files and for recommending that committees link to FDsys where possible. We also applaud GPO for making XML files available on FDsys through the Bulk Data Repository, along with the authenticated PDFs. This affirms GPO’s status as a trusted repository of official, authentic, digital and secure information and allows other entities to add value to government information.

Free AALL Webinar on Law Librarians and the Federal Depository Library Program

AALL members and chapter members are invited to participate in AALL’s free April 19 webinar, “Law Librarians and the Federal Depository Library Program: Working Together for a Successful Future.” Registration closes on April 12.

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The Government Printing Office (GPO) is conducting a study to assess the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) and determine its direction. Law librarians are leaders in advocating for equitable, no-fee, permanent public access to authentic online legal information, so it is vital that you participate in building a robust FDLP for the future.

AALL and GPO invite you to join us to learn more about the FDLP Forecast Study and how you can contribute. Sally Holterhoff, former AALL president and a two-term member of the Depository Library Council, will introduce the program, and Director of Government Relations Emily Feltren will moderate. GPO project leaders Cherie Givens and David Walls will explain the goals of the study, its three major components, and how you can participate in your state and/or region. Peggy Roebuck Jarrett, Depository Library Council member and leader of state efforts in Washington, will then explain how she has been working with other Washington State federal depository libraries to create a state forecast and action plan. The webinar is geared toward law librarians at federal depository libraries, but all AALL and chapter members are welcome to attend.

This webinar is free for AALL members and chapter members.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to explain the parts and goals of the FDLP Forecast Study.
• Participants will understand how and why to get involved in the project in their own states.

Speakers:

Sally Holterhoff is government information/reference librarian and associate professor of law librarianship at Valparaiso University Law Library in Indiana. She has served two terms as a member of the Depository Library Council–from 1987 to 1990 and from 2008 to 2011. Her AALL activities through the years have included serving as chair of the Government Documents SIS and of the Government Relations Committee and serving as president in 2006-07. She is also a founding member of INDIGO, the Indiana government documents group.

Peggy Roebuck Jarrett is reference and documents librarian at the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library and is currently serving on the Depository Library Council. She is organizing the efforts of the Northwest Government Information Network to craft a forecast and action plan for Washington State depository libraries.

Cherie Givens is an assessment specialist librarian at the U.S. Government Printing Office. She is co-leading the FDLP Forecast Study, has lead curriculum planning for online training on GPO’s Federal Digital System, drafted the Legal Requirements and contributed to the Program Regulations of the Federal Depository Library Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Library, Archival and Information Studies, and is also an attorney-at-law with a particular interest in First Amendment issues and laws affecting libraries and archives. She has written and presented on issues related to the First Amendment, intellectual freedom, social policy, and the publishing industry.

David Walls is the preservation librarian for the U.S. Government Printing Office, where he is responsible for developing preservation initiatives for tangible and digital government information. He is the co-chair of the FedLink Preservation Working Group and is currently leading an initiative for FDsys certification as a trustworthy digital repository. Before coming to GPO, he was the preservation librarian at Yale University for over a decade. He is currently serving with Cherie Givens as the co-lead on the FDLP Forecast Study.

Moderator:

Emily Feltren, AALL Government Relations Office

AALL Federal Legislative Advocacy Update: GPO Funding

Senate Appropriations Committee Provides More Funding for GPO than House of Representatives, But Falls Far Short of Full Funding

The Senate Appropriations Committee, late Thursday evening (9/15), considered the Legislative Branch appropriations bill, which includes funding for the Government Printing Office (GPO).   The Subcommittee did not mark up the bill, instead sending it straight to the full committee for consideration.

The Committee debated three other appropriations bills (Defense; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Financial Services/General Government), starting at 2pm and ending with Legislative Branch at 7pm.  The Legislative Branch bill was approved in 10 minutes without debate or amendments.  The good news was that there were no amendments to cut GPO funding closer to the House funding levels, but there were no amendments to increase funding either.   See Senate Appropriations Committee Press Release and Senate Report on Legislative Branch Appropriations No.112-80.

For GPO, the Senate Appropriations Committee-approved bill includes a total of $116.8 million, $8 million more than the House-passed bill ($108.1 million) and $18.2 million less than FY 2011.  The Senate bill includes $500,000 for the Revolving Fund (the House had zeroed it out), $35,000,000 in Salaries and Expenses (the House provided $33.5 million) and $81.3 million for Congressional Printing and Binding (the House provided $74.6 million).  Here is a detailed chart showing funding trends (losses) since FY 2010.  As you can see, the Revolving Fund had already taken a significant hit, going from $12.7 million in FY 2010 to $1.6 million in FY 2011.

Unlike the House, the Senate Report includes very supportive comments regarding GPO’s work toward efficiencies and modernization, and for FDsys and the FDLP.  While some believe that cutting print editions will save large amounts of money, the Senate Appropriations Committee acknowledged “approximately 70 percent of the GPO’s budget represents the prepress cost of congressional publications for online access and print production.”

This bill severely cut government agencies across the board, including Congressional salaries which may result in further salary cuts, furloughs or lay-offs.  While Chairman Ben Nelson (D-NE) stressed that Congress and agencies must tighten their belts and live with less, AALL and its members have stressed that these cuts to GPO programs primarily and significantly affect the American public and the legitimacy of our government.

AALL members have played a significant role already in support of GPO funding and we thank you very much for your active involvement.  Personalized constituent contacts are critical to success, especially regarding issues that involve money.  Senate staff paid particular attention to specific examples of how FDsys and FDLP benefit their constituents.

The Senate bill could next be considered on the Senate floor or directly in a House/Senate conference process.  Therefore, continued contacts with all Senators and with key members of House and Senate committees are still needed.  A specific action alert will be sent out early next week.

Contact:
Julie M. Strandlie
Director, Government Relations
jstrandlie@aall.org
(202) 942-4237