National Taxpayers Union (NTU) urges all Representatives to vote “YES” on H.R. 736, the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act. This bipartisan legislation, which NTU has supported in prior Congresses, ensures that congressional reports, which taxpayers pay for, are available to the public for free.
Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL), the sponsor of H.R. 736, explained the current issue with congressional reports best when he reintroduced this legislation in January: “Each year, Congress receives thousands of reports from federal agencies but does not compile them in a central location. Currently, these reports are maintained by the Clerk of the House in a comprehensive list that runs over 320 pages, instead of in an easily searchable system.”
H.R. 736 corrects this problem by creating one, centralized, online portal for all past, current, and future congressional reports. Even better, the legislation requires reports to be searchable by title, reporting federal agency, key words, and full text. This will allow the public to better hold their government accountable for the trillions of dollars it spends per year on a wide array of programs and agencies.
When NTU endorsed this legislation in 2018, we noted: “When Congress requests a report, paid for with taxpayer funds on issues important to taxpayers and decision-makers, those reports should be made available to everyone unless the information is classified.” NTU believes H.R. 736 goes a long way toward making valuable information available to the people who pay for it.
NTU strongly urges Representatives to support H.R. 736.
Roll call votes on H.R. 736 will be included in our annual Rating of Congress and a “YES” vote will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Policy and Government Affairs Associate Andrew Lautz at alautz@ntu.org.