Wendell Ford

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Bumpers], and the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor], are necessarily absent.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2257

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, this side has no objection.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2272 (Purpose: To revise and improve the base closure and realignment process)

Mr. FORD. It has been cleared.

Mr. FORD. We have no objection.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2268 (Purpose: To establish and maintain a Battlefield Integration Center for the integration of missile defense warfighting pillars)

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2267 (Purpose: To strike out provisions that amend title 38, United States Code, relating to veterans' benefits)

Mr. FORD. We have no objection.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2265 (Purpose: To require reports on arms export control and military assistance)

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, we have no objection.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2263 (Purpose: To make certain that the Committee on Foreign Relations receives certain reports from the Department of Defense)

Mr. FORD. We have no objection.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2262 (Purpose: To express the sense of Congress regarding establishment of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps units in schools on Indian reservations)

Mr. FORD. We have no objection.

Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2261 (Purpose: To authorize a land conveyance, Radar Bomb Scoring Site, Powell, Wyoming)

Mr. FORD. We have no objection.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, this clarifies the authority concerning the Civil Military Cooperative Action Program.

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, the bill as reported would freeze the program at the fiscal year 1995 level of funding for the Junior ROTC. I believe it has been cleared on the other side.

Mr. FORD

Mr. FORD. Mr. President, I want to thank my distinguished colleagues, Senator Cohen and Mr. Levin, the authors of this amendment, Senator Glenn, and others, for their assistance in including my language in their amendment. Although this compromise language is not all that I had hoped, I believe that it takes an important step toward ensuring that the public who fund the creation of government information will be able to access it. The amendment by my distinguished colleagues is a version of legislation currently before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, S. 946. I have serious concerns about that legislation and the impact it has on issues within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Rules and Administration, on which I serve as the ranking member. The Rules Committee has worked hard over the last several years to ensure that Government information that is disseminated electronically, rather than through printed documents, is readily found and obtained by the public who pays to produce it. As technology allows us to move from the printed page to electronic databases, the Rules Committee has the same historic interest in ensuring that the public has access to that information in the least costly, most efficient form. At some point, most information that is available electronically is reduced to a printed form, and it is imperative that the protection of title 44 with regard to ensuring public access to such information be preserved no matter how much technology changes. Currently, we achieve that through a combination of the depository library system and provisions of title 44 which created the Government Printing Office electronic access system, enacted 2 years ago. This system maintains a directory of Federal electronic information which can be readily located and accessed by the general public through the depository library system. The depository library system, including over 1,400 libraries located in every congressional district across this country, provides an essential link for individual and communities to their government. The depository library system ensures that all government printed information, and now electronic information through the GPO access system also, is available to anyone, regardless of whether they have a computer in his or her home or office. It is a system that is working and working well. It simply makes no sense in these times of fiscal restraint to reinvent the wheel when it comes to a system by which the public will locate and access government information. That is not to say that this should be the sole method of disseminating public information. But it should be the plain, vanilla method by which anyone, no matter how geographically isolated or computer illiterate, goes about obtaining government information. The language I sought to have added to this measure provides that if an agency determines that its information technology system will be used to disseminate information to the public, then that information must be provided to the Government Printing Office, pursuant to section 4101 of title 44, United States Code. The GPO directory is currently being used by depository libraries across this country to provide the public with a usable reference system for government information. Under this provision, an executive agency will continue to determine when it will make information available to the public. But once that decision is made, regardless of whether the information is reduced to printed form or posted on an electronic database, the public will be able to find it through the GPO access system. The public is entitled to that information and should not have to own a computer with a link to the specific agency, or any other database, to find it. My language ensures that they will not. A simple trip to their library to access the GPO system is all that is required. This provision is necessary to ensure that the taxpayers of America who fund the creation of information technology systems which will be used to disseminate information will be able to access that information. This is an important link between government and the public and will increase the accountability of government to the public it serves. I appreciate the considerable assistance of my distinguished colleagues, and their staff, in developing this compromise. I look forward to continuing efforts to ensure that no matter how much technology changes, the American public still gets their dollars worth.

Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Bumpers] and the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Pryor] are necessarily absent.