Senators don't always share bill text online before votes. They should, advocates say

If you want to know what bills are under consideration in the Senate, you could follow floor proceedings live on C-SPAN. But, even for parliamentary procedure experts, it can be difficult to understand exactly what's happening.

Among the issues? The text of what the lawmakers are considering isn't always made available for public review before it is voted on. Now, a crosspartisan group of open governance advocates has sent a letter to Senate leadership calling for change. In the letter, first obtained by NPR, they call on the Senate to post bill and amendment text online as soon as it is made available to members.

"The public and the press and the whole apparatus that supports the Senate to help understand what legislation is, they don't have access," said Daniel Schuman, an author on the letter and the executive director of the American Governance Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the institutions of American democracy.

That lack of transparency means "that problems can often sneak through," said Schuman. "At times, this has been a mechanism for the Senate to move legislation to avoid the proper public scrutiny." In 2013, Schuman recalled, Congress quietly repealed provisions of a popular congressional financial disclosure and insider trading law — skirting public scrutiny.

While the Congressional Record — the official record of legislative branch proceedings and debates — does provide information about bill text and proposed amendments, it is not published until after the legislative day concludes. That means when bills or amendments are offered on the same day they are considered, they may not be publicly available until after they are voted on.

"We've been working first to get the Senate to update their own systems internally," said Luke Hogg, a senior fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, which works to help policymakers become more effective stewards of innovation. The organization joined AGI on the letter, and as Hogg explained, now that staffers themselves have reliable access to what is being considered, "it should also be given to the American public."

In contrast to the Senate, the House of Representatives publishes draft legislative text and proposed amendments online ahead of their consideration, with rare exceptions.

Graves and Schuman argue in their letter that the current Senate process creates unequal access to information, where staff and interest groups with connections to Senate offices understand what's being considered, but legislative support agencies like the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office, as well as the press and public at large are often left in the dark.

"Privileged access to public business that currently is the subject of floor debate should be minimized to the extent possible," they wrote.

The advocates hope to see the Senate enact the public transparency effort in the new Congress in January.

In a statement to NPR, an aide to Sen. Alex Padilla, the California Democrat who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Rules committee, said that the senator is open to input on the transparency measure as well as other ideas to improve the functioning of Congress.

Sen. John Thune, Senate Republican leader, did not respond to a request for comment.