Via a posting to GOVDOC-L by Daniel Schuman, Director | Advisory Committee on Transparency, Policy Counsel | The Sunlight Foundation: “I’ve just released a significant report on the link between congressional staff pay and congressional competence. What makes it relevant to this list is that the research wouldn’t have been possible without a government document librarian, and it highlights how difficult it can be to obtain official gov’t docs that aren’t official enough to be available from GPO. Second, for those who care about the legislative branch, Congress must do a better job of making available information about itself. It was nearly impossible to obtain copies of staff salary surveys. Not until this past
year were House Expenditure Reports, which include staff pay, made available online, and they are in a terrible format that is difficult to evaluate. The Senate won’t begin publishing comparable data online until the 3rd quarter of 2011. The publication. Vital Statistics on Congress 2008 is incredibly useful, but was compiled by private researchers. Again, Congress should make this information available online in formats that lend themselves to easy analysis.”