I worked at the Congressional Research Service for 11 years as an analyst and manager. I greatly enjoyed supplying congressional staff, committees, and members of Congress with nonpartisan research and advice. I got to help conceptualize legislation, assist committees with hearing preparation and testify before Congress. It was fun, heady work.

I also wrote a lot of CRS reports, as did my beloved colleagues. Each year, the agency publishes about 1,000 reports, which cover general subject matter, like advertising by the federal government and cloture in the U.S. Senate. Congress, not the CRS, owns them. That means nobody at the CRS is free to distribute its reports to anyone outside Congress — not without jumping through bureaucratic hoops.

Unfortunately, our national legislature, as a matter of practice, does not publish all CRS reports in one place, like Congress.gov. CRS reports get posted here and there on various congressional webpages. Additionally, any member or congressional staffer can share reports with the public; it’s a congressional prerogative. As a result, there are CRS reports floating all over the Internet. By one count, there are 27,000 CRS reports scattered over 1,400 U.S. government websites.

It is a bizarre situation: there is not de jure public release of CRS reports, but there sorta is de facto publication. This policy is irrational, inefficient and costly. Here are 15 reasons Congress should release all CRS reports to the public:

The arguments against expanding public access are outdated and bogus. Congress can and should vote promptly to adopt a resolution, which would not need the president’s signature , to post CRS reports on Congress.gov or another public website. Doing so will cost nearly nothing and it will bring many benefits.

For further discussion of this subject, watch this October 2015 video of a bipartisan discussion on the merits of expanding public access to CRS reports.