Bill to make federal data open, machine-readable reintroduced in both chambers
Samantha Ehlinger, FedScoop, Mar. 30, 2017
A bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers reintroduced Wednesday the OPEN Government Data Act — a bill that passed the Senate last year but stalled in the House.
The bill, which would set a presumption that federal data should be published online in a machine-readable format, has a broad support from open data advocates, government spending watchdogs and the technology industry.
“There’s nothing especially useful about a spreadsheet trapped in a locked box but that’s basically how things work now,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a statement. “We need to make sure that appropriate and publicly available data is easily accessible to folks who can put it to work.”
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