Today the Government Publishing Office published the House Manual — which contains Rules of the House of Representatives, Jefferson’s Manual, and other important legislative documents — online in a structured data format on GitHub. GPO did so pursuant to direction from the House Rules Committee, which was acting in accordance with the rules package passed at the beginning of the 114th Congress, which declares:

The House shall continue efforts to broaden the availability of legislative documents in machine readable formats in the One Hundred Fourteenth Congress in furtherance of the institutional priority of improving public availability and use of legislative information produced by the House and its committees.

The online publication of key legislative documents as structured data is a welcome development. The Congressional Data Coalition has for a long time requested the enhancement, which empowers further analysis and reuse of the information in many different context. I, for one, will be glad to be able to automatically track revisions in the House Rules from Congress to Congress. I know others will find much more insightful uses.

All the offices and agencies involved with the project deserve congratulations, including: the House Rules Committee, the House Parliamentarian, the Clerk of the House, and the U.S. Government Publishing Office. (I’m sure there are more.)

The House Manual, as helpfully explained in the user guide to using the electronic version of the manual, includes:

• the U.S. Constitution
• Jefferson’s Manual
• the Rules of the House of Representatives
• Provisions of the Legislative Reorganization Acts
• Congressional Budget Act laws
• Legislative Procedures

All of the files can be found here. I have not had an opportunity to fully review what’s online — for example, I’m trying to find an unannotated version of the House Rules— but GPO has helpfully requested feedback on the GitHub page.

House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions hailed the move in a statement:

Technology plays an important role in our daily lives, and it is necessary that the House keep up with the most efficient and effective ways to provide information about Congressional activities. As Chairman of the House Rules Committee, I am committed to the advancement of sharing legislative data online and am confident that our efforts will result in a better informed public.

GPO explained, in a press release, the value of publishing the documents in a more flexible format:

Making Government information available in XML permits data to be reused and repurposed not only for print output but for conversion into ebooks, mobile web applications, and other forms of content delivery, including data mashups and other analytical tools by third party providers, which contributes to openness and transparency in Government.

Good job. And thank you.