Congressional Research Service Electronic Accessibility Act of 2009
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Congressional Research Service Electronic Accessibility Act of 2009 - Directs the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate, working jointly with the Director of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), to establish and maintain a centralized, searchable, electronic database consisting of: (1) CRS Issue Briefs, Reports, and Authorization of Appropriations Products and Appropriations Products; and (2) an index of such information. Exempts: (1) any information determined to be confidential by the CRS Director or the head of the agency that provided it to CRS; and (2) any document that is the product of a confidential research request made by a House or Senate Member, officer, employee, or office.
Authorizes the Clerk and the Secretary, on the basis of information provided by the Director, to: (1) remove from the database information about a CRS employee or material that may infringe the copyright of a protected work; and (2) make any changes that the Director determines are necessary to ensure that information in the database is accurate and current.
Requires each official public website of a Member or committee of Congress to permit public use to obtain the information contained in such database to the same extent congressional users may obtain such information through the CRS website.
Provides that this Act does not require the Director to respond to any public inquiry with respect to information in the database.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on October 8, 2009. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on October 8, 2009: Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Frank Kratovil (D-MD) introduced it on October 8, 2009, and 2 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 1 Democrat, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on October 8, 2009, 6181 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6181 days ago, on October 8, 2009.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers