Rating Congress on Transparency

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be officially releasing a paper entitled “Publication Practices for Transparent Government” at a Hill briefing entitled “Publication Practices for Transparent Government: Rating the Congress.”


If you’re a smart and savvy Internet user, you probably noticed that the paper is there at the first link above, unofficially released just for you. This qualifies you to read it and get some of the fascinating and different technical aspects of transparency.


This is all a teaser for our release tomorrow of “grades” on how Congress is doing with publishing data about the essential parts of its legislative work. For that, you’ll have to attend the event or watch it live‐​streamed (here, commencing at 9:00 Eastern with remarks from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R‑CA)).


If you like transparency — and chances are you do — you can help spur discussion tomorrow (or even today) using the hashtag #RateCongress, along with, of course, #transparency. (Don’t know what a hashtag is? Well, here’s a little help.)


Despite good faith efforts on the part of the Obama administration and congressional leaders, government transparency hasn’t flourished as it could the last few years. The paper, event, and “report card” are intended to spur progress on that front.


Transparency is interesting not only technically and administratively, but ideologically. Libertarians and conservatives believe it will expose waste and corruption, fomenting downward pressure on the size and scope of government. Liberals and progressives believe transparency will expose waste and corruption, validating many government programs and roles.


I say let’s get on with exposing waste and corruption, so we can find out what happens next!