Wikileaks posts Congressional reports.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Wikileaks.org has published a complete database of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports dating back to 1990.

Wikileaks estimates the private research documents written for members of Congress and their staffers to be worth $1 billion. The 6,780 reports now available online include all the digitized reports accessible by congressional offices. According to IDG News Service, they do not include classified material, but politically sensitive areas such as social policy, defense, and foreign affair are included.

The reports should make the public more aware of what kind of information Congress uses to make decisions, according to Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Schmitt, who added their release might spur lawmakers to post future reports publicly.

Groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) have been asking Congress to make CRS reports public for years, while other groups argue that doing so could politicize the office, which is supposed to be objective and nonpartisan.

The CDT's own project, called Open CRS, has worked to make CRS reports public.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates