This report, which will be updated as events warrant, provides an overview and analysis of issues related to the processing and distribution of congressional information by the Government Printing Office. Subsequent sections address several issues, including funding congressional printing, printing authorizations, current printing practices, and options for Congress. Finally, the report provides congressional printing appropriations, production, and distribution data in a number of tables.

After a long two days of legislative battle, the House Judiciary Committee just finished its second day of debate on Chairman Conyers’ PATRIOT reform bill, HR 3845. . . the Committee rejected almost all amendments that would have weakened the bill’s reforms and voted to recommend the bill to the House floor by a vote of 16 to 10.

Even better, the Committee kept going after it was finished with PATRIOT to consider Representative Nadler’s State Secret Protection Act (HR 984), which would reform the state secrets privilege that the government has repeatedly used to try and throw EFF’s warrantless wiretapping cases out of court. After an impassioned defense by Mr. Nadler, who described how the government has used the privilege like a “magic incantation” to cover-up wrongdoing and warned that state secrecy “is the greatest threat to liberty at present,” the bill passed with even better numbers than the PATRIOT bill, 18 to 12!

Yesterday, the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009 (H.R. 3845) was reported favorably out of the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 16-10. During the mark-up, the Committee adopted Chairman Conyers’ manager’s amendment that tightens the standards for issuing National Security Letters and adopts important new reporting, audit and oversight provisions. Unfortunately, the committee also adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-29) that struck the “specific and articulable facts” language for Sec. 215 orders.

On 4 November 2009, SLA, AALL, and MLA  sent a letter to U.S. House of Representatives John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler and Bobby Scott to express support for H.R. 3845, the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009. This important legislation would protect the privacy of library users by raising the standard for Section 215, the so-called “library provision” of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Read Letter.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the American Library Association (ALA) have issued a statement saying they strongly support the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act of 2009. Several provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are set to expire on Dec. 31, 2009, unless Congress acts to reauthorize them.

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission convened a meeting in San Antonio to launch a new strategy to improve Internet access in public libraries.

More than 200 public library systems in Texas lack Internet access. The purpose behind the Texas Opportunity Online Broadband Summit is to pinpoint ways public libraries can obtain broadband access.

An effort to make the nation’s public libraries a major source of robust Internet access is gaining momentum as a disparate group of foundations, companies, and trade and government agencies weigh in with plans to build support for bringing fiber optic technology to the country’s 16,500 libraries.

OMB Director Peter Orszag released a memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies this morning announcing a new initiative in the FY 2011 budget process that seeks to bring increased emphasis and resources for program evaluation within agencies. The memo outlines three parts to this initial effort.

When 22-year-old programmer Aaron Swartz decided last fall to help an open-government activist amass a public and free copy of millions of federal court records, he did not expect he’d end up with an FBI agent trying to stake out his house.

But that’s what happened, as Swartz found out this week when he got his FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act request. A partially-redacted FBI report shows the feds mounted a serious investigation of Swartz for helping put public documents onto the public web.

The forthcoming open government directive will dictate that each agency come up with a process for measuring the outcomes of transparency efforts, a top General Services Administration official said on Monday. The White House as soon as two weeks from now will issue a directive based on recommendations developed by the federal chief technology officer in concert with GSA and the Office of Management and Budget.