OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Letter to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington

Date: Dec. 23, 2003
Issues: Technology and Communication Government Operations Legislative Branch


December 23, 2003

The Honorable James H. Billington
Librarian of Congress
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540

Dear Dr. Billington:

We are writing to request that the Library of Congress take steps to improve the THOMAS website in order to make information about Congress more accessible to the general public.

As you know, Members of Congress and their staffs have access to the Legislative Information System (LIS), a website that is superior to THOMAS in many ways. For example, LIS provides users with advanced search capabilities, whereas THOMAS is a "bare-bones" site with limited searching tools. Unlike users of LIS, THOMAS users are unable to search across multiple Congresses, click on the sponsor of a particular bill to find other bills sponsored by that Member, search by state delegation, specify the difference between a full text search and a summary text search, or access pending and proposed amendments. In addition, THOMAS does not allow users to save searches, request e-mail alerts, or access the legislative action taken on the previous day. In our view, the current form of THOMAS is insufficient as a portal to the Congress of the United States.

We recognize that the LIS website includes links to proprietary services that cannot be made available to the public. However, we believe that most of the other non-proprietary links should be included on a publicly available website. Therefore, we urge you to upgrade the THOMAS website in order to make available to the public the non-proprietary services that are available on the LIS website.

We hope you would agree about the importance of an informed public in our democracy, and about the value of making legislative information as easily accessible to the public as possible. Again, we urge you to take prompt action to improve the interface and functionality of THOMAS, and look forward to hearing from you on this matter.

Thank you for your attention to this request.

Sincerely,

JON S. CORZINE

JOE LIEBERMAN

JOHN MCCAIN

PATRICK J. LEAHY

JOHN CORNYN

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD

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