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The Data Coalition applauds the Committee’s efforts to improve transparency and efficiency throughout the legislative branch.

On Thursday, July 12, the House Administration Committee hosted the 6th Annual Legislative Data and Transparency Conference, which brought individuals from government agencies together with data users and transparency advocates to foster a conversation about the use of legislative data, how agencies use technology, and how they can use it better in the future.

The inaugural RegTech Data Summit’s thesis was that regulatory rules, technology, and data must be modernized in a coordinated fashion. If all three areas are modernized in tandem, new RegTech solutions will flourish, reducing reporting duplication, minimizing reporting errors, and enabling automation.

Congressman David Brat (R-VA) and Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) have reintroduced the Statutes at Large Modernizations Act (SALMA), H.R. 1729. If enacted, SALMA would put all historical federal laws online in a machine-readable, open data format.

Last week, on Feb. 2, leaders from 22 tech companies fanned out across Capitol Hill. We crossed from Senate office buildings to House, and back again. We sat down with eight members of Congress and nine groups of staffers. We walked nearly ten miles. We ended our fourteen-hour day with a well-deserved beer. To enact our wonky agenda and realize our ambitious vision, we may have to invest many more Groundhog Days. But that’s okay. With each year of the same Capitol Hill treks and similar policy chats, real change is happening.

It’s been a busy year for the world’s only open data trade association! We started a new sister organization, welcomed nearly two thousand people to our events, testified before Congress, and celebrated the Senate’s passage of landmark legislation. Our members made all this possible.

Today the Data Coalition announced its 2017 Policy Agenda, which summarizes advocacy priorities for the start of the Trump Administration and the 115th Congress. The Coalition, which represents 36 leading technology and consulting firms, is the nation’s only open data trade association.

Rep. Stefanik, joined by Luke Messer (D-IN) introduced the Establishing Digital Interactive Transparency Act (EDIT Act) (H.R. 5493) on June 14th, 2016. The bill is currently pending in the House of Representatives’ Committee on House Administration. When this bill is signed into law, the Library of Congress would be charged with implementation and would have one year to comply.

Earlier this month, the open Congress movement gained a huge endorsement from House Speaker Paul Ryan. The Speaker backed the adoption of Congressional data standards and common formats for legislative information. The House Speaker's endorsement of the Bulk Data Task Force's work will further efforts to make legislation, floor summaries, committee work, and the U.S. Code available as structured data. The Speaker even endorsed the technical approach of building out XML-based open data structures across Congress.

On Wednesday, the Data Coalition hosted a Legislative Data Demo Day to show what’s possible when we make our laws and legislation more accessible. This past Wednesday we explored how legal and regulatory information can be reformed in order to provide maximum value to both lawmakers, and the public.