TITLE I - Access to Information About Members of Congress

Sec. 102. Electronic filing of and timely public access to official travel reports. (3 Comments) subscribe to the comments feed

Electronic filing of required reports saves resources by eliminating the need for staff to input information that is already stored electronically. Additionally, putting this information online provides the public with a better understanding of the type of travel a Member is taking, where he or she is going, and who is paying for it. A 48-hour requirement ensures the information is available in a timely manner, instead of weeks or months after the travel has taken place.

  1. Mandatory Electronic Filing of travel reports. The Rules of the House and the Senate are amended to provide the following: `each person required to file a travel report under this provision shall be required to maintain and file such report in electronic form accessible by computers.'

  2. Requiring Posting on Internet- The Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate shall post on the public Internet site of the Office of the Clerk, or the Office of the Secretary, respectively, the reports filed under paragraph (a) within 48 hours (Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays excepted) after they are received in a format that is searchable, sortable, and downloadable.

  3. Retention- The Clerk and the Secretary shall maintain the information posted on the public Internet site of the Office of the Clerk or Secretary, respectively, under this section for a period of six years after receiving the information.

  4. DIRECTORY- The Superintendent of Documents, under the Direction of the Public Printer in the Government Printing Office, shall include information about the documents made available on the Internet under this section in the electronic directory of Federal electronic information required by section 4101(a)(1) of title 44, United States Code.

3 comments on Sec. 102. Electronic filing of and timely public access to official travel reports.

  • Why allow documents to be lost after 6 years?

    posted by Joshua Tauberer, GovTrack.us at March 27, 2008

  • 1. In a., I think "to maintain and file such report in electronic form accessible by computers" should be changed to "to file such report(s) in electronic form with the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate, whichever is appropriate." We don't really care whether the person making the report "maintains" it as long as the Clerk or the Secretary does. There should also be a provision providing for the amendment of such reports once filed. Honest mistakes do happen, and it would be silly for there not to be a way to correct them.

    2. As to c., Mr. Tauberer has a good point. Perhaps a provision requiring the archiving of the reports would be appropriate.

    posted by Terry ODonnell at April 4, 2008

  • On (c) and archiving, I would expect that the National Archives (NARA's) Center for Legislative Archives would be responsible for archiving the documents after the period during which the Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate are responsible for handling them, but this point should be clarified. It probably would only ADD cost, though, to suggest that the database should only contain the last 6 years of records, so maybe the correct action would be to mandate that the CLA maintain archival backups of the public databases maintained by the Clerk or the Secretary.

    posted by John Wonderich, Sunlight Foundation at April 8, 2008

Comment on Sec. 102. Electronic filing of and timely public access to official travel reports.

(You may comment anonymously. Moderators may remove offensive or off-topic comments.)

Your Name (and Organization*):

Your Comment: (HTML is not permitted, but links will be automatically linked)

*We encourage you to take credit for your comments by including your name and organization.

Preview Your Comment

The Sunlight Foundation supports, develops and deploys new Internet technologies to make information about Congress and the federal government more accessible to the American people. Through its projects and grant-making, Sunlight serves as a catalyst to create greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government. This Site may contain links to Internet sites that are not operated by Sunlight Foundation. These links are provided as a service and do not imply any endorsement of the activities or content of these sites, nor any association with their operators. Sunlight Foundation does not control these Internet sites and is not responsible for their content, security, or privacy practices. We urge you to review the privacy policy posted on web sites you visit before using the site or providing personal information.