A New Window on Sacramento

Californians may soon be able to tap into legislative data using their personal computers. Assembly Bill 1624, sponsored by Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey), would provide public access to such information via Internet, an international network of computer systems.

Available material would include bills and their amendments, voting records, veto messages and information on committee hearings as well as bill histories, status and analysis. Among other things, the database would also contain all California laws, the state Constitution and the rules of the Legislature.

Despite its high-tech industries, California is not a pioneer in this area. Several other states offer electronic access to legislative data, and President Clinton on June 8 signed a federal law providing for on-line access to the Congressional Record and Federal Register.

The California bill would seem to be a natural, but legislation, like a computer, is hardly ever free of complication. In fact, the proposed legislation has nationwide implications because, if some lawmakers get their way, it will contain a provision that could set a dangerous precedent.

At issue is a clause in the version already approved by the Assembly that would prohibit anyone from republishing or otherwise duplicating the information for a fee without the written consent of the Legislature.

The provision was added at the behest of Assembly Rules Committee Chairman John Burton (D-San Francisco), who says he doesn’t want to see private companies make a profit on “a product paid for by taxpayers, unless taxpayers share in that profit.”

Burton’s reasoning seems sensible, but it puts the state in the position of restricting the electronic distribution of public information that, in printed form, is already available without restriction.

I don’t mind the state charging a small fee to cover the cost of providing the information, but because the same data is already available on the Legislature’s own computer system, the incremental cost of making it available to the public will be very low, according to Duane Peterson, an aide to state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica).

Jim Warren, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has offered to donate an IBM-compatible computer that could be used to transmit the data to the Internet for free worldwide dissemination. Access to Internet is available to users of many university, library, government and corporate computing systems around the world.

Private citizens can tap the Internet via commercial services such as Portal (408-973-9111) and HoloNet (510-704-0160).

The Legislature already sells access to its data to private companies that deliver it electronically to lobbyists, businesses, local governments and other clients who may pay as much as several thousand dollars a year for timely access.

As written, the provision to restrict republishing the information could apply to newspapers, magazines, cable news networks or anyone else who charges a fee. That is not the intention, says Burton, but he could not say whether the restrictions might be applied to on-line information services such as America Online, Compuserve and Prodigy.

Several million people use these services and their numbers are growing rapidly. What’s more, articles from mainstream newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and USA Today are already disseminated via these and other electronic services. Today the news media are no longer limited to print, television and radio.

To me, the issue is simple. The same rules should apply whether the information is obtained electronically or on paper. Public information should be available to the public at no charge beyond the nominal cost of providing it. In this case there is no incremental cost, since anyone will be able to get the information via the Internet at no charge to the state.

If someone wants to resell that information, they should be free to do so. Market forces will prevent anyone from making an exorbitant profit from the data, especially since it will be available, at no charge, from free computer bulletin board systems. And market forces can bring the data to people who do not have computers or access to Internet.