December 9, 2021–Due Process Institute and a wide array of organizations joined together to demand greater transparency in the legislative process by improving public access to bills and amendments considered on the Senate floor. Currently, the Congressional Record is only published each day after the conclusion of legislative proceedings and thereby provides a retrospective look at what happened. In circumstances where bills or amendments were offered on the same day they were considered, there is no systematic concurrent public availability of the text with the deliberations.
Congressional offices, the public, and the press need greater assistance with tracking and accessing bills and amendments set for debate on the Senate floor. In the modern era, this suggests contemporaneous online availability of the text of legislation and amendments and improved archival access. The Senate should consider a multi-pronged approach to addressing these issues by reviewing the current mechanism used to publish this information internally, the fitnesses and adaptability of technologies used in the House, and an exploration of technologies and tools currently employed inside the Legislative branch (such as Congress.gov) as well as those in other legislatures. Furthermore, Congress should examine the extent to which the text of legislation and amendments printed in the Congressional Record also are contemporaneously published on Congress.gov and an exploration of the various points in the legislative process where bill text and amendments exist in final form.