Public Markup of The Transparency in Government Act of 2008

Markup, we know what the word means. It's the process by which congressional committees and other groups debate, amend and rewrite draft legislation. It's collaborative writing. Now the Sunlight Foundation has launched a special project called Public Markup for public contributions that could refine the Foundation's draft Transparency in Government Act of 2008 (pdf) before looking for legislators who might sponsor the bill. Check out the project [web version of the bill]

About the Foundations's Transparency in Government Act of 2008: The draft is a broad legislative effort intended to make the work of Congress and the executive branch more transparent by creating laws and regulations that would bring more information online and available to the public in a timely manner. The draft legislation is an amalgamation of bills that have already been introduced, along with new provisions. If enacted, it would create historic changes in the way the executive and legislative branches provide information to the public, and Sunlight believes it would foster a better and more complete understanding by the public of how the government works.

[JH]