H.R. 1591 passes

H.R. 1591, “Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2007, and for other purposes,” passed today with a vote of 51 ayes, 47 nays, and 2 abstentions (This is the bill that doesn’t just give more money for the war in Iraq - note that ‘other purposes’ line because that can range from peanuts to the minimum wage.)

Both Alabama Senators voted against the legislation.

the government in popular culture

Did you watch South Park this evening?  Not only were google, youtube, myspace, ebay, paypal, drudge report, eharmony, etc., mentioned…but it was a great illustration of government bureaucracy in action.  [cia, dhs, fbi, nsa, the president's people, all fighting over who has jurisdiction while the enemies' plans move forward...]

National Counterintelligence Strategy released

The Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive released the 2007 National Counterintelligence Strategy [pdf] yesterday.  From the preface,

“This National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America elaborates the fundamental responsibility for US Intelligence to warn of and help prevent terrorist attacks against the homeland, engage other asymmetric threats, and provide reliable intelligence on traditional and enduring strategic issues. It also describes a way forward by which the counterintelligence organizations of the US government will engage elements in the public and private sectors to address the threat posed by the intelligence activities of foreign powers and groups and protect our nation’s secrets and the means by which we obtain those secrets.”

AlaSafe.gov

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center has launched AlaSafe.gov - a site that allows “family members and caregivers of individuals with forms of dementia may now provide information to authorized Alabama law enforcement officials to assist in identifying their loved ones in the event they wander or become lost.”

ERIC digitization project

For everyone who’s ever had to use an ERIC document on microfiche…soon, that will be a thing of the past!  I’m late hearing about this story, but back in December ERIC announced that they’re going to digitize all of their documents on fiche from 1966-1992 and make them freely available through their web site.  The project should be finished in 2009.

Hearing on MLB/DIRECTV Deal

Today the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology is holding a hearing on Exclusive Sports Programming: Examining Competition and Consumer Choice. Representatives from Major League Baseball, DIRECTV will testify. In case you missed it, they do archive their hearings - you just need to make sure you’ve got RealPlayer on your computer.

CRS Director Cracking Down on Release of Reports

CRS is the Congressional Research Service (key word - Congressional). It’s a think-tank that works exclusively for members of Congress. They produce wonderful reports - non-partisan, thoroughly researched…just wonderful. Unfortunately, even though these reports are federally-funded, they are not very accessible to the general public - and CRS likes it that way. Sites like the Federation of American Scientists and OpenCRS help - they somehow obtain reports & post them on their sites for anyone to download. But currently, if you want to obtain a report, you might have to buy it from a company called Penny Hill Press.

Anyway, that’s the background. The latest news? A memo sent by Director Dan Mulhollan to his staff was posted by Secrecy News the other day. In it he states, “I have concluded that prior approval should now be required at the division or office level before products are distributed to members of the public,” (meaning everyone except a member of Congress or their staff).

From personal experience, I know that there are plenty of other government workers who find the CRS reports invaluable - not to mention students, researchers, and the general public. This new policy isn’t just about the suppression of information produced at taxpayer expense - it is an attack on the employees of the organization, and their ability to do an effective job.

What is ‘Bama Docs?

The purpose of this blog is to highlight new and/or interesting items in the world of government information policy (federal and state, mostly), federal depository libraries, etc.