Web site makes gov't. reports available

BusinessWeek reports A new Web site aims to make widely available to the public certain government reports about topics from terrorism to Social Security that congressional researchers prepare and distribute now only to lawmakers. The site -- www.opencrs.com -- links more than a half-dozen existing collections of nearly 8,000 reports from the Congressional Research Service and centrally indexes them so visitors can find reports containing specific terms or phrases. It also encourages visitors to ask their lawmakers to send them any reports not yet publicly available -- and gives detailed instructions to do this -- so these can be added to the collection. None of the reports is classified or otherwise restricted.

Some of the collections available right (and the number of documents in each) now include

• National Council on Science and the Environment (1560)
• Federation of American Scientists (596)
• Thurgood Marshall Law Library/University of Maryland School of Law (585)
• IP Mall at Franklin Pierce Law Center (187)
• National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (120)
• Center for Democracy & Technology (30)

They also list eight current issues:

• Afghanistan
• Enemy Combatants
• Energy Policy
• Homeland Security
• Identity Theft
• Iraq
• PATRIOT Act
• Social Security