The Congressional Research Service was the subject of an event hosted by the Advisory Committee on Transparency in May 2011. The event examined the present and future of CRS after the retirement of Dan Mulhollan, who served as its director for 17 years.
Nye Stevens, retired deputy director of CRS' Government and Finance division, began by describing the basic functions of CRS. According to Stevens, CRS views itself exclusively as a Congressional support agency with a confidential relationship to the legislative branch. CRS products are aimed at educating Congressional staff on the facts of an issue and they generally avoid taking explicit stances. CRS experts, Stevens noted, have excellent academic credentials, but are not necessarily versed in public policy analysis. CRS spends most of its time doing research for, and educating, congressional staff who are not experts in a particular area.
Mike Stern, a former senior counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, refuted three legal arguments that are often cited by the CRS to justify keeping its reports out of the public domain. First, he asserted that releasing all of the reports would have little practical impact, because many are already released. Second, he claimed that CRS would not be open to liability, because their reports are fact based and rarely enter into territory that could be litigious. Finally, he argued that final reports could be released without exposing the sources and methodology behind them, because CRS has certain protections as a congressional support agency.
Robyn Russell, a Legislative Assistant for Congressman Mike Quigley (D-Ill), gave a congressional staffer's perspective on CRS. She said that she often uses CRS to do research and answer constituent requests. According to Russell, many CRS reports are available to the public for purchase through third party providers online, but should be accessible for free. Representative Quigley introduced legislation to achieve this goal. Russell recognized that concerns may exist within CRS and made it clear that Quigley's office would be happy to work with the agency to alleviate any problems.
Steve Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, argued that Mulhollan's retirement provides a rare opportunity to rethink CRS' management and strategy. He identified three major areas for reform. First, he suggested that CRS hire new Senior Specialists in order to replenish their deepest levels of subject matter expertise. Second, he argued that CRS should be more opinionated. The agency is staffed by experts, congress could benefit from their honest opinions. Finally, he reiterated that CRS reports should be publicly available.
The event was moderated by Daniel Schuman, director of the Advisory Committee on Transparency, and emphasized the need to make CRS reports more easily available to the general public.
(This event was rescheduled from April)