The Senate does not always make the text of bills and amendments available to the public before members vote on them. A cross-partisan group of open-government advocates has asked Senate leaders to change that, NPR reported, in a letter first obtained by the network.
The letter calls on the Senate to post bill and amendment text online as soon as it is made available to members. "The public and the press and the whole apparatus that supports the Senate to help understand what legislation is, they don't have access," said Daniel Schuman, an author of the letter and executive director of the American Governance Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit. That gap, he said, means "problems can often sneak through" and has at times been "a mechanism for the Senate to move legislation to avoid the proper public scrutiny." In 2013, he noted, Congress quietly repealed provisions of a popular congressional financial-disclosure and insider-trading law.
The Congressional Record does publish bill text and proposed amendments, but not until after the legislative day ends. When measures are offered the same day they are considered, they may not be public until after the vote. Luke Hogg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, which joined the letter, said advocates first worked to give Senate staff reliable internal access. "It should also be given to the American public," he said. The House, by contrast, generally publishes draft text and amendments online ahead of consideration, with rare exceptions. The letter argues that staff and well-connected interest groups often know what is on the floor while the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, the press and the public do not. "Privileged access to public business that currently is the subject of floor debate should be minimized to the extent possible," it says.
Advocates hope the new Congress will adopt the practice in January. An aide to Sen. Alex Padilla, the California Democrat expected to become chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, told NPR that Padilla is open to input on the transparency measure and other ideas to improve how Congress works. Sen. John Thune, the Senate Republican leader, did not respond to a request for comment.