This week is Sunshine Week, the annual celebration timed to James Madison’s birthday “that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government.” Sunshine Week began in Florida in the early 2000s in response to efforts by members of the state legislature to create a plethora of new exemptions to the state’s public records law. It has spread nationally, with some federal agencies hosting Sunshine Week events and the House’s Oversight Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee (and sometimes Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee) holding oversight hearings, marking-up legislation, and sending letters. Here’s a list of this week’s events.

Why should we care about government transparency?

Continue reading “FBF: Sunshine Week Lights the Way” →

It’s not easy to recognize when our political system is transitioning from one era to another, but there are many signs that we are in the middle of that process.

This past week, Senator Mitch McConnell announced he will step down as Republican leader at the end of this Congress and retire from the Senate when his term ends. His nemesis, Democratic leader Harry Reid, retired from the Senate in 2017. In the House of Representatives, all of the “Young Guns” — Reps. McCarthy, Boehner, and Cantor, as well as Rep. McHenry — have left the Capitol, or are about to do so. Their longtime political opponents, Reps. Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn, have recently stepped down from their leadership posts, although several are still influential in the House.

Continue reading “FBF: The End of an Era in the American Experiment” →

In January, the R Street Institute, Demand Progress Education Fund, and POPVOX Foundation hosted a cybersecurity training for House staff. While the House and Senate provide resources and training to protect official accounts, at this time, there’s no equivalent support for staffers’ non-official accounts.

Continue reading “FBF: Ensuring that Congressional Staff Can’t Be Backdoored on Cybersecurity” →

This past Tuesday, I sat in on an excellent hearing on the use of Artificial Intelligence in the Legislative Branch, hosted by the House Administration Committee. I’m not going to recap it here — Aubrey already did that — but I did want to share a good idea that I ripped off from the Obama administration.

It’s a really simple idea: in order to build on top of data, you have to know what you have. To wit: way back in the midst of time, 2013 to be precise, President Obama required agencies to conduct and create “enterprise data inventories” — a comprehensive list of all the data an agency holds.

Continue reading “FBF: The Untapped Goldmine of Legislative Data: Rocket Fuel for AI” →

In my work I have the luxury — sometimes the necessity — of digging into Congress’s past. How did things work before? What were people thinking? Is any of this relevant today?

So when reading through comments on the introduction of Congress reform legislation from the Congressional Record in the 1960s, I ran across a mention of a “Management Study of the U.S. Congress” by Arthur D. Little, Inc. in 1965. Naturally, I wanted to read it.

Continue reading “FBF: What’s Past is Prologue” →

On Thursday, the House of Representatives did something unusual: it passed a small, bipartisan bill with a substantive and positive impact on policy. The PRESS Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Kevin Kiley [R, CA], Jamie Raskin [D, MD], and eighteen others, is a reporter shield law. The District of Columbia and every state except Wyoming provide a statutory protection or court-recognized shield for journalists.

This bill, like the ones in the states, prohibits prosecutors from forcing journalists and their IT providers to disclose information about their sources except when doing so would prevent terrorism or imminent violence. Basically, think of it as a clergy or attorney-client privilege, but for reporters talking to their sources — an entirely different form of confession. The purpose is to allow journalists to report the news without fear the government will go after them for doing their jobs. Going after the press for “leaks” is a time-honored way of distracting from the substance of the reporting.

Continue reading “FBF: How a Good Government Bill Becomes a Law” →

Congressional fellowships provide key support to Congress as an institution, but their role and the gaps they address have changed over time. My friend Lorelei Kelly was there when the House of Representatives drastically reduced its staff and diluted committee resources in favor of centralizing power at the top.

Lorelei ran a bipartisan bicameral study group starting in the late 1990s that shared information across committee jurisdictions and helped mitigate the shortfalls in staffing and Congressional attention on a wide range of national security issues.

She started her remarkable career sneaking American literature into the Soviet empire before it fell, developed deep expertise in behavioral economics, and has spent decades working to strengthen Congress’ ability to govern. Please read her first-person account of how and why she helped create the modern fellowship system in the House:

Continue reading “FBF: Evolution of Congressional Fellowships” →

It’s that time of year to recount where Congress has been naughty and nice in 2023.

Congress.gov is indicating 22 laws enacted during the course of the year, a number likely to increase slightly when you count the NDAA and whatever else was pushed through at the last minute. 2021 saw 81 bills become law. This is, of course, a terrible way to judge Congressional productivity, but it’s the end of the year and I’m tired.

Continue reading “FBF: Naughty or Nice? Congress in the Rearview Mirror” →

To what extent should information about the Legislative branch be available to the public? Should federal courts be able to compel Congressional offices and agencies to disclose information to the public? To what extent should the Legislative branch adopt public disclosure laws that apply to the Executive branch – or go further?

Continue reading “FBF: Freedom to Access Legislative Branch Information” →

Now that Congress has been on social media for a decade-and-a-half, it’s a good time to assess how that’s been working out for our democracy.

Continue reading “FBF: Should Congress Tweet?” →