Via InstaPundit comes word of the latest innovation from N.Z. Bear–an annotatable online presentation of the very controversial Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Maybe my search skills are slipping, but I couldn’t find the text of it on Thomas, Govtrack or Open Congress. Bear not only has the text, he’s set it up in a way that users can comment on the text and link to specific passages, plus he’s provided a table of contents. He writes,

If those who forged this “compromise” have their way, this bill will be voted on as early as Tuesday. That’s a crazily short amount of time for Senators — let alone the American public — to review, understand, and have a voice on the substance of such a complex bill.

My hope, however, is that by presenting the bill in this form, I will help make the bill more accessible to all, and provide a central spot where commentary, criticism, and suggested improvements can be assembled. Who knows — maybe our erstwhile leaders on Capitol Hill will take notice, and take some of our comments to heart.

The Sunlight Foundation takes no position on the merits of the bill, but we do think that the text of all proposed legislation should be readily available to the public online, in an easily searchable form, for exactly the kinds of citizen efforts that N.Z. Bear is leading.