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Why Aren’t These Documents Available Online?

In order to dig deeper into the Open House Project, today I paid a visit to the Capitol to figure out how your average Joe or Jane gets information related to members of Congress. Turns out that if you’re based in Washington and have some time to kill, it’s not so hard. But for everyone else, the process could be daunting.

The House Legislative Resource Center, which falls under the purview of the Office of the Clerk, is located in B-106 of Cannon Office Building, and open during normal office hours. It oversees public documents for the House, including:

• Federal Election Campaign Reports
• Financial Disclosure Reports
• Franked Materials (Mass Mailings)
• Gift and Travel Filings
• Foreign Travel Reports and Expenditures
• Legal Expense Fund Disclosures

All of this information, with the exception of the travel filings, is available by searching on a computer in the office. It costs 10 cents per page to print. I asked a gentleman at the Legislative Resource Center how someone from outside Washington could access the information stored in the office. He said that person would have to either travel there in person or send a liaison.

Seems to me that given the fact that this information is already stored in a computer, it would seem fairly easy (assuming there are no privacy concerns) to make it publicly available online. Why isn’t it already? That’s the question I’m hope you can help me answer.