- Democrats See a ‘Document Gap’ in Dismissals - CRS Clamps Down on Public Distribution Patrice McDermott, Director OpenTheGovernment.org 1742 Connecticut Ave NW, 3rd floor Washington, DC 20009 202.332.OPEN (6736) www.openthegovernment.org - DEMOCRATS SEE A ‘DOCUMENT GAP’ IN DISMISSALS By Eric Lipton and David Johnston March 22, 2007 WASHINGTON, March 21 — The dismissal of eight United States attorneys has elicited a long and ever-growing list of theories by Democrats on Capitol Hill about ulterior motives and suspicious coincidences. Now there is a new one: the document gap. Democrats on Capitol Hill were privately urging reporters on Wednesday to press the Bush administration to explain why in the thousands of pages of e-mail messages and documents turned over to investigators, there is almost nothing from Nov. 16 to Dec. 7, the day seven of the firings occurred. In contrast, there are hundreds of pages from the weeks after the dismissals. more [NYT] *** - CRS Clamps Down on Public Distribution Secrecy News March 22, 2007 In what is being characterized by subordinates as an act of "managerial dementia," the Director of the Congressional Research Service this week prohibited all public distribution of CRS products without prior approval from senior agency officials. "I have concluded that prior approval should now be required at the division or office level before products are distributed to members of the public," wrote CRS Director Daniel P. Mullohan in a memo to all CRS staff. "This policy is effective immediately." While CRS has long refused (with Congressional concurrence) to make its electronic database of reports available to the public online, it has still been possible for members of the press, other researchers, and other government officials to request specific reports from the congressional support agency. But now, "to avoid inconsistencies and to increase accountability, CRS policy requires prior approval at the division level before products can be disseminated to non-congressionals," Director Mullohan wrote. more and “INFORMATION SHARING;You'd Know if You Were Congressional” [WPost] ***