========================================================================= THE IMPROVEMENT OF INFORMATION ACCESS ACT (IIA ACT) I am now doing work for James Love on improving access to gov't elec. information, particularly utilizing nets to organize support. If anyone has suggestions for mailing lists, newsgroups, etc., that would be useful for such appeals. A letter on cable reg's is forthcoming, and that should shed some light on what I mean. Thanks, Paul phyland@gwuvm.gwu.edu ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Taxpayer Assets Project FACT SHEET March 31, 1992 HR 3459 THE IMPROVEMENT OF INFORMATION ACCESS ACT (IIA ACT) On October 1, 1991 Representative Major Owens (D-NY) introduced HR 3459, the Improvement of Information Access Act (IIA Act). This bill would greatly broaden access to public information by addressing the following issues: AGENCY MANDATES TO DISSEMINATE INFORMATION Federal agencies would be given an unambiguous mandate to use modern computer technologies to disseminate federal information. Agencies would be required to use national computer networks, such as the INTERNET, as well as depository libraries and other distribution channels that improve public access. Agencies would also have a responsibility to provide adequate documentation, software, indexes, or other resources that will broaden public access to government information. STANDARDS Agencies would be required to disseminate information products and services in standardized record formats, and report every year on their progress in developing or adopting standards for a wide range of issues, including software query commands. The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Records and Archives Administration (NARA) are required to develop and periodically revise voluntary performance standards for public access to government records. PRICING The IIA Act would set a government wide limit on the prices the federal government can charge on information products and services. This price limit would be the incremental cost of dissemination, which is defined to exclude the costs of data collection. Agencies would not be allowed to impose royalties or other fees on the redissemination of federal government information. PUBLIC NOTICE Perhaps most important of all, the IIA Act would make federal management of information resources much more democratic. Every year all federal agencies would be required to publish a report which describes: - plans to introduce or discontinue information products and services, - efforts to develop or implement standards for file and record formats, software query command structures, and other matters that make information easier to obtain and use, - the status of agency efforts to create and disseminate comprehensive indexes or bibliographies of their information products and services, - how the public may access the agencies information, - plans for preserving access to electronic information that is stored in technologies that may be superseded or obsolete, and - agency plans to keep the public aware of its information resources, services, and products. Agencies would be required to solicit public comments on this plan, including comments on the types of information collected and disseminated, the agency's methods of storing information, their outlets for disseminating information, the prices they charge for information, and the "validity, reliability, timeliness, and usefulness to the public of the information." The agency would be required to summarize the comments it received and report each year what it had done to respond to the comments received in the previous year. Organizations supporting the IIA Act include: American Library Association Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Electronic Frontier Foundation GT Publications, Inc., Sacramento CA (Publisher of Government Technology) Institute for Public Policy and Business Research, University of Kansas Public Citizen Special Libraries Association Taxpayer Assets Project Technical Network Products, Inc., San Jose, CA WHAT YOU CAN DO The most important thing which can be done is to enlist additional cosponsors for the legislation. Write your congressional delegation a brief letter describing why you think HR 3459 is needed and specifically ask that they cosponsor the bill. Points that you might raise include the following: - The legislation would broaden public access to government information. - The bill requires federal agencies to recognize that the computer age has raised many new issues regarding public access to government information. - Modern computer technologies should provide new opportunities for citizens to receive information from government databases that they have already paid for as taxpayers. - While new computer technologies have made it far easier and cheaper for agencies to store and collect information, many federal agencies refuse to pass those savings along to citizens, and charge outrageous prices for information stored in electronic formats. [For example, the Bureau of the Census charges $250 for its TIGER CD-ROMs, and the Federal Reserve System charges $560 per quarter for a single reel of tape with data from its bank call reports]. - High prices for government information are anti-democratic. We should not ration the "right-to-know" to the most affluent members of our society. - Many federal agencies are insensitive about the public interest in the information resources they manage. HR 3459 is needed to direct federal agencies to take steps to make government information easier to receive and use. We would also like to see additional endorsements for HR 3459. Endorsements from small and large organizations are needed to demonstrate the base of support for this legislation. Even local groups are important, since they demonstrate grass roots support. WORKING TOGETHER It is important to coordinate efforts on behalf of HR 3459 so that letters of support or endorsements for HR 3459 will have a broader audience. Please send copies of your letters to Congress (and the replies) or endorsements to the Taxpayer Assets Project or the American Library Association. OTHER IMPORTANT PUBLIC ACCESS LEGISLATION Other important public access bills include: GPO WINDO HR 2772, introduced by Representative Charlie Rose (D-NC), would set up a Wide Information Network for Data Online (WINDO) through the Government Printing Office (GPO). The WINDO would provide one-stop-shopping for online access to hundreds if not thousands of federal databases and information systems. The public will be asked to make annual suggestions on the databases that will be available through the WINDO. There is already substantial interest in providing access to the SEC's EDGAR system of corporate disclosure filings, the House of Representatives LEGIS system, and Department of Justice JURIS system, and the Department of State Dispatch, just to mention a few. The WINDO would be available for free at 1,400 federal depository libraries and also through subscriptions (priced at dissemination costs) for those who want online access from their homes or offices. Electronic FOIA S. 1940, introduced by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Brown (R-CO) would broaden citizen rights to receive access to electronic versions of agency records, when citizens submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. --------------- For more information about public access to federal government information, contact: Taxpayer Assets Project American Library Association Washington Office Washington Office P.O. Box 19367 110 Maryland Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20036 Washington, DC 20002-5675 voice: 202-387-8030 voice: 202-547-4440 fax: 202-234-5176 fax: 202-547-7363 internet: tap@capital.com ================================================================= James Love, Director VOICE: 609-683-0534 Taxpayer Assets Project FAX: 202-234-5176 7-Z Magie, Faculty Road bitnet: Love@pucc.bitnet Princeton, NJ 08540 internet: Love@pucc.princeton.edu .