[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 16 (Wednesday, February 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PUBLICATION OF COMMITTEE MATERIALS


Standards for the Electronic Posting of House and Committee Documents & 
                                  Data

                   Committee on House Administration

                       Committee Resolution 112-

                   Adopted on December     , 2011___

Standards for the Electronic Posting of House and Committee Documents & 
                                  Data

       Resolved, That the following regulations, collectively 
     referred to as the ``Standards for the Electronic Posting of 
     House and Committee Documents & Data'', are hereby adopted, 
     as follows:


                             XML Standards

       Committees are encouraged to post documents in XML when 
     possible and should expect XML formats to become mandatory in 
     the future. The Office of the Clerk will update XML standards 
     as required to support these documents. The XML standards 
     will be publically available at http://xml.house.gov.


 File Naming Standards

       The Office of the Clerk will publish and maintain naming 
     standards for each document to be posted. These standards 
     will facilitate automated searching and uploading of such 
     documents. Files will be posted using permanent URL links. 
     These links will facilitate outside and committee usage of 
     these files. In addition, permanent URL links will allow each 
     archived committee website to maintain functionality.


                          Committee Documents

       The Committee on House Administration further directs that 
     the Clerk provide additional functionality on the centralized 
     website for House documents to support committee documents; 
     until the completion of such functionality, House committees 
     are responsible for posting committee documents in a 
     searchable PDF format in an appropriate location on the 
     committee majority's website. XML versions of documents, when 
     available, should be posted at the same location.


                           Video Requirements

       Committee video of hearings and markups will be stored by 
     the House to meet requirements for archiving, access, 
     searchability, and authenticity.


                    Additional Review and Reissuance

       To ensure documents are made available in user-friendly 
     formats that preserve their integrity, these standards will 
     be subject to periodic review and reissuance by the Committee 
     on House Administration. It is the intent of the Committee to 
     implement standards that require documents to be 
     electronically published in open data formats that are 
     machine readable to enable transparency and public review.
       In accordance with the Speaker's initiative to increase 
     transparency of House and committee operations, the Committee 
     on House Administration, as directed by House Rules, has 
     established the following standards for posting House and 
     committee documents and data electronically. These standards 
     will be phased in and subject to periodic review and 
     reissuance. The standards are intended to ensure that Members 
     and the public have easy, advance access to legislation 
     considered by the House and its committees.


                Documents and Data Covered by Standards

       The following House and committee documents and data files 
     are covered under these standards:
       House Documents:
       Bills to be considered by the House; Resolutions to be 
     considered by the House; Amendments to be considered by the 
     House; Conference Reports to be considered by the House.
       Committee Documents:
       Committee rules; Bills to be considered by the committees; 
     Resolutions to be considered by committees; Prints or other 
     legislative text intended to serve as the base text for 
     further amendment; Meeting Notices; Witness Lists; Witness 
     testimony; Truth in Testimony disclosure forms; Public 
     notices; Amendments adopted by committees; Committee record 
     votes.
       Although not required by House rules, committees are 
     encouraged to post additional committee documents online, 
     including oversight plans, committee transcripts, committee 
     prints, and committee activity reports.


                            House Documents

       The Committee on House Administration directs the Clerk of 
     the House to establish a centralized website where Members 
     and the public can access all House documents in a 
     downloadable, open format within the time frames established 
     by House Rules. This centralized location shall be 
     established for House Documents no later than January 1, 
     2012.

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