Sen DeMint Pushes For XML Format

Sen Jim DeMint (R-SC) is circulating a draft letter that asks Senate Rules Chairman Charles Schumer and ranking member Bob Bennett to modernize the way the chamber provides information about roll call votes, thus increasing Senate transparency. For a number of years, the House has provided roll call votes to the public in a format that allows them to be easily read, processed, and shared but the Senate continues to make available its votes in what government watchdogs have complained is an antiquated fashion that prevents easy analysis and dissemination. Utilizing an XML format would allow the public to use computers to search, sort, and visualize voting records in new ways, the letter states, noting that the costs associated with the transition would be negligible but the impact would be profound.