This week the progressive organization Demand Progress, along with the Congressional Data Coalition, launched EveryCRSReport.com. This new project site makes available, with the help of friendly Congressional offices, all Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on Congress’ own internal site. The public now has access to more than 8,200 reports in one searchable database (you can even bulk download them and get the code to start your own mirror site).
Originally established over a century ago as the Legislative Reference Service, CRS’ primary mission is to provide Congress with research and analysis on policy questions. Today, American taxpayers spend over $100 million each year supporting CRS’ activities. Part of these activities include informing the public — not just Congress — about legislative matters. For instance, the bill summaries you see on Congress.gov were all written by CRS. So too the Constitution Annotated, which explains how the Supreme Court interprets and applies the American Constitution. Additionally, Congressional offices disseminate thousands of copies of CRS reports to their constituents each year and often post them on their own websites. Yet, CRS and Congress have historically resisted efforts to allow public access to CRS reports.
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