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posted by martyb on Wednesday December 26 2018, @07:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the information-wants-to-be-free dept.

Congress approves act that opens US government data to the public

Congress has passed a bill that could make it easier for you to access public data released by the government. The House approved the OPEN Government Data Act on Saturday, while all eyes were on the shutdown, as part of a larger bill to support evidence-based policymaking. It requires that federal agencies must publish any "non-sensitive" info in a "machine-readable" format (essentially in a way that's legible on your smartphone or laptop). The act also insists that agencies appoint a chief data officer to oversee all open data efforts. Having passed the Senate last Wednesday, the bill is next headed to the President's desk.

The US public already paid for the data to be gathered, analyzed, and reported; why shouldn't they be able to freely access it?


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday December 26 2018, @10:49PM (1 child)

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday December 26 2018, @10:49PM (#778771)

    To say that a Republican Congress and Senate did something good? Sure. No problem. When they actually fucking do it. I'm not impressed. At all. With either party. Why did it take so fucking long to formally recognize that the information was ours to fucking begin with? I hope this is including the reports made by the Congressional Research Service. They are supposedly respected as being bipartisan and produce high quality research for our politicians to digest. Frequently, some politicians go against the rules and disseminate the data anyways. However, it's disgusting that the policy has been to hide it, which has always meant to me that BOTH sides agreed that information could be damaging so they kept it to just themselves.

    This was the least they could do, and they were ALWAYS morally, ethically, but not legally bound to do so.

    Whaddya want a medal? :)

    I'll be impressed when the Republicans can pass something that isn't blatantly for the 1% alone. Anything supporting the unions and our right to fight those fucking sons of bitches to get our lives back. Not seeing anybody drain the swamp, or obtain justice for all the wealth stolen from the middle class, etc. Yes, that very much goes for the Democrats too. A fully controlled Democratic government did jack diddly shit for the people too.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday December 26 2018, @11:12PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday December 26 2018, @11:12PM (#778780) Homepage Journal

    Don't take it too seriously, ed. I was just giving DM some well-deserved crap. I have complete faith they'll manage to screw it up somehow. They're politicians. If they actually made everything not suck, they couldn't rile anyone up to vote for them anymore.

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