I just ran across these two great articles (one & two) on states that are providing electronic access to their state legislation information. I just wonder why all state and the federal governments aren’t doing the same. I mean, isn’t it all public information? We’re paying for it all aren’t we? Shouldn’t that mean we get easy access to it?
I would love to be able to subscribe to a service that provided updates on the bills I care about. If there was database access available, I have to believe someone (not necessarily the government) would provide one. I’m sure special interest groups would love to be able to write easy scripts to compile voting records on bills they care about. There are hundreds of interesting uses this information can and should be put to.
I believe a government has a fundamental responsibility to provide its citizens with full and complete free information about its workings.
