At the outset of the 112th Congress, both the House and Senate have adopted new rules to increase the transparency of their activities. The Senate will end its practice of "secret holds," where one senator could anonymously forestall proceedings on a bill. Meanwhile, the House adopted a variety of transparency reforms, including posting bills online for three days before voting on them and disclosing more information about committee actions.

Changes in the House

The House rules package, which passed Jan. 5 along party lines, includes several transparency provisions. The reforms come among other changes not related to transparency, such as several changes to spending procedures and the names and composition of some committees.

The new rules fulfill two promises made in the Pledge to America, the House Republicans' pre-election policy document. The rules' "Read the Bill" provision requires legislation that has not gone through the normal committee process to be available to members (which may include electronic availability) for at least three legislative days before being considered on the floor. However, as the Sunlight Foundation noted, "the rules do not explicitly mandate online public availability."

In addition, the new rules require each introduced bill to be accompanied by a public statement citing the legislation's authority under the Constitution. Previously, this statement was only required when bills were reported from committee. As noted in OMB Watch's analysis of the original proposal in the Pledge, it remains unclear how these statements will be used and who will resolve any disagreements that may arise.

The rules also contain several changes to committee procedures to give greater notice to the public about activities. For instance, committee meetings must now be publicly announced at least three days in advance, subject to exemptions. Legislation to be marked up by a committee must be publicly available 24 hours before the committee meets, and the text of any amendments to be adopted during the markup must be published within 24 hours after the meeting. Additionally, the record of committee votes must be published electronically within 48 hours. The new rules also eliminate an exemption that allowed the Rules Committee not to disclose its voting records.

"Truth-in-testimony" forms for non-governmental witnesses in committee hearings must be posted online within a day after the hearing. Earlier rules required witnesses to submit these forms, which disclose how much federal funding the witnesses receive, but did not specify that they must be posted online.

Each committee is now required to post its rules online. Committees are also required to issue a report on their activities twice a year, rather than every other year under the previous rules. "To the maximum extent practicable," committees must provide public audio and video recordings of their meetings and hearings. However, the rule does not specify deadlines or that the recordings must be available online.

The Committee on House Administration is newly assigned specific responsibility to "establish and maintain standards for making documents publicly available in electronic form by the House and its committees."

In a nod to the changing media landscape, the new rules eliminate references to specific news outlets for admission to the House floor or committee meetings and hearings. Moreover, the rules lift the blanket ban on using computers or mobile phones on the House floor. Instead, only devices that "impair decorum" are banned.

The rules also retain the Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent ethics review board. Speculation had swirled that Republicans might eliminate the office since most Republicans voted against creating it in 2008.

The Sunlight Foundation said it was "delighted" with how many of its proposals were adopted in the new rules. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington added, "For transparency and open government geeks, there are a few good nuggets to be happy about."

Changes in the Senate

The Senate adopted a rules change to end the use of secret holds, where one senator could anonymously forestall proceedings on a bill or nomination. Only four senators voted against the change: Jim DeMint (R-SC), John Ensign (R-NV), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Rand Paul (R-KY).

The vote came as part of an agreement on several aspects of Senate reform, where both parties agreed to streamline procedures and reduce obstructionism. The Washington Post called the deal "the most significant change in the chamber's rules in 35 years."

Under the new rule, senators are required to publish their holds in the Senate Calendar and Congressional Record within two legislative days. The previous rule, adopted in 2007, required disclosure within six legislative days but could be withdrawn without publication at any time before the sixth day. This allowed senators to cooperate and place rolling holds, each lasting less than six days, and avoid the publication requirement. The new rule should reduce the opportunity to place rolling holds.

The previous rule also had no enforcement mechanism, which Senate reformers had criticized. Under the new rule, if Senator A claims to object on behalf of another anonymous senator, Senator A automatically will have the hold printed in his or her name if the anonymous senator does not reveal him or herself.

"The transparency and accountability in this resolution will ensure that the public's business will be done in public," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who sponsored the rule. "Congratulations to the Senate for ending this terrible practice," wrote the Sunlight Foundation.

Other changes

After the November elections, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), now chair of the House Rules Committee, sent a letter to the House Chief Administrative Officer requesting that cameras be installed in the committee's room, one of three committee rooms previously lacking them. The committee has since begun posting video of its meetings.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), in a recent letter, supported expanding access to the Capitol grounds for photojournalists. But in a separate letter, Boehner denied C-SPAN's request to add independent cameras on the House floor.