Thank you, Chairman Ryan, Ranking Member Beutler and members of the Legislative Branch Appropriations subcommittee for holding this open hearing. This is the third consecutive year the subcommittee has held a public hearing, which is a wonderful and remarkable achievement.

All of us who have participated previously and are submitting testimony today are very grateful. I am the vice president of policy at the R Street Institute, and I previously spent 11 rewarding years as an analyst and acting research manager at the Congressional Research Service (CRS). After serving at CRS, I joined others in advocating for equitable public access to CRS reports. I believed that it was unfair that the public had no online source for getting authenticated copies of the reports, whereas lobbyists and others within the Beltway had easy access. I also contended that in the age of “fake news” and “alternative facts” the public and media need more objective sources of information….(Read more)