Bad things like earmarks that waste tax dollars happen when Congress keeps too much of the public’s business out of the public eye. Members routinely vote on massive bills they’ve never read. Congressional committees vote on hundreds of arcane amendments but typically only panel members and interested lobbyists know what gets changed. Most information about how members manage their multimillion dollar offices and staffs, who they meet with, and how they spend their official time is protected by a pervasive “what happens here stays here” culture on Capitol Hill. The OpenHouse Project aims to change these bad habits.

The OpenHouse Project was started by the Sunlight Foundation, a D.C.-based non-profit devoted to encouraging greater transparency in government. The OpenHouse Project focuses on finding ways to make the operations of Congress more open and accessible to the American people, starting with the House of Representatives. Like much of Sunlight’s activities, the OpenHouse Project brings together an ideologically diverse coalition that includes OMB Watch and the Daily Kos blog from the left and Porkbusters and the Truth Laid Bear blog from the right. The Washington Examiner is also a participant in this effort.

Most of the participants are from outside of Washington, but, thanks to such Internet-inspired tools as wikis and widgets, they are able to bring to light outmoded practices on Capitol Hill and suggest new, web-based solutions. For example, the transcripts of committee hearings where most legislation is crafted are technically public, but are rarely available until months later. Why not instead webcast hearings, then post the video on the committee’s Web site as soon as possible? Why not also make it possible for interested taxpayers to use something like the “track changes” function in Microsoft Word to view revisions in legislation as it moves through Congress? And why not require that the full texts of all bills to be voted on by the House be posted on the Internet at least 48 hours before the roll call?

The OpenHouse Project will produce a report containing recommendations in a number of areas, with an emphasis on getting the most achievable changes done first. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised to give the report serious consideration, saying “the Internet is an incredible vehicle for transparency, honest leadership and open government. I am encouraged by this working group and look forward to recommendations on how the House can be as open and accessible to citizens as possible.” What Pelosi does with the report will be another important indicator of how serious she is about changing business-as-usual on Capitol Hill.