On Tuesday evening, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, industry players and open data advocates gave a series of short talks at a reception prior to the Data Transparency Summit in Washington, D.C. Sunlight was there to talk about the importance of opening government data for transparency, accountability and public knowledge.

It was refreshing to hear such unequivocal support support for open data from congressmen, from implementing the DATA Act to codifying the gains of the past years into law through the OPEN Government Data Act.

We were thrilled to hear from Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, that House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, is considering marking up the bill in the 114th Congress, and we strongly encourage the House to pass commonsense legislation that will make open government data the default in United States government, permanently.

Videos of the lawmakers speaking is below. (We apologize for the lighting. On this count, letting the sunshine in wasn’t so ideal.)

Congressman Mark Meadows talks about open data and the DATA Act

Congressman Randy Hultgren talks about open data

Congressman Blake Farenthold talks about open data and the OPEN Government Data Act

Congressman Seth Moulton talks about open data

Socrata founder and CEO Kevin Merritt talks about the arc of open data