Unnoticed elsewhere but celebrated here, the Library of Congress must update its website to include a unified calendar for Senate and House of Representatives committee hearings and markups. The deadline is 90 days after enactment of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, which was on September 21, which means it must be up by Friday, December 21st.
Civil society has long asked the Library of Congress to publish a unified calendar, but had no success in convincing the Library. Congressional offices spend $1,000 per subscription to buy access to this data from private vendors, as to many in the private and non-profit sectors.
The provision, included in the House’s legislative branch appropriations committee report, includes the following requirements for the data elements for the continuously updated calendar: the committee name; the subcommittee name (if appropriate); the meeting topic; witnesses (if any); legislation under consideration (if any); a link to legislation under consideration (if any); a link to the committee or subcommittee’s website; and a link to where video or audio (if any) from the proceedings are or will become available. The calendar will be organized chronologically, and viewable as an individual day as well as a weekly view.
— Written by Daniel Schuman
