Niskanen Center Joins a Coalition of Organizations Dedicated to Making Legislative Data More Accessible in the Digital Age
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Niskanen Center is pleased to announce that it has joined the Congressional Data Coalition to improve the ability of American citizens to keep up to speed with the legislative process.
“We are excited to work with such a talented and committed group of individuals and organizations dedicated to congressional transparency,” said Ryan Hagemann, the Niskanen Center’s civil-liberties policy analyst. “The more we digitize legislative information, the more engaged American citizens can be with the legislative process. In an age of ubiquitous information flows, this coalition represents the approach that both the House and Senate should be embracing: increased and improved public access to congressional information.”
The Congressional Data Coalition was established to encourage Congress to disseminate information about its activities and optimize the means by which legislative data are distributed to the public. The Coalition supports the public’s right to know what its government is doing and advocates facilitating the circulation of that information in an easily searchable and user-friendly manner.
Among its other principles, which can be viewed here, the Coalition supports a presumption in favor of disclosure, publishing information in a manner that facilitates its reuse by third parties, and the release of both raw data and aggregate data through portals such as Congress.gov and FDsys.gov.
“We look forward to helping our Coalition partners advance these important and necessary objectives, “ Hagemann continued, “and we are optimistic that by working together we can help improve government accountability, transparency, and the efficacy of the public-policy process.”