Coalition letter urging further support of ACMRA
Dear Chairman Harper and Ranking Member Brady:
We, the 30 undersigned organizations, write to thank the Committee on House Administration for its April 12th vote to unanimously report the bipartisan Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act (“ACMRA”),1 to reiterate our strong support for ACMRA, and to respectfully urge the Committee to communicate to the House that the Committee has in fact ordered the legislation to be reported and supports its prompt consideration. Once that occurs,2 ACMRA will be eligible for floor consideration.
This upcoming week marks the last time the House of Representatives will be in session until September. Only a short window remains for consideration of ACMRA by this chamber and the Senate before the 115th Congress ends.
We described the virtues of ACMRA in our April 4, 2018 letter endorsed by 45 organizations.3 In summary, ACMRA will strengthen Congressional oversight and improve government transparency. It establishes a central repository for agency reports submitted to Congress and tracks whether agencies have submitted the reports. This will improve all Members of Congress’s access to the reports and ensure Congress knows when they become available. ACMRA was first introduced in 2010 and after a long 8 years we are hopeful it will become part of this Congress’s transparency legacy.
We look forward to your prompt action and thank you again for your support for this important transparency bill.
Sincerely yours,
American Association of Law Libraries
American Civil Liberties Union
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Association of Research Libraries
Campaign for Accountability
Campaign for Liberty
Center for Data Innovation
Center for Media and Democracy
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)
Common Cause
Data Coalition
Defending Rights & Dissent
Defense Priorities Initiative
Demand Progress Action
Free Government Information (FGI)
Freedomworks
Government Information Watch
In the Public Interest
Issue One
National Security Archive
National Taxpayers Union
New America’s Open Technology Institute
Open the Government
Project On Government Oversight
Quorum
R Street Institute
Senior Executives Association
Society of Professional Journalists
Sunlight Foundation
Union of Concerned Scientists
cc: Committee on House Administration
1. https://cha.house.gov/markup/committee-business-meeting-1. See the 9:22 mark on the video.
2. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/4631/all-actions
