Update 3/15/05
Sunshine Week: A success by any measure, and still going strong, with 3,920 hits a few moments on Google News as one strong indication, and some superb reporting on open government as another. See our website, cjog.net, or the Sunshine Week site, www.sunshineweek.com.
On the FOIA front: The OPEN Government Act – the fix FOIA bill submitted by Sens. John Cornyn, R-TX, and Patrick Leahy, D-VT – got off to a smooth start today. Six witnesses, highlighted by former AP Washington Bureau Chief Walter Mears, testified on why the legislation is needed. There was also strong testimony from a Texas AG who talked a penalty provision, similar to one in the proposed law, that has helped make the Texas law work. And from the Heritage Foundation’s Mark Tapscott and the ACLU Lisa Graves, giving it strong conservative-liberal support.
Text of their prepared remarks is posted on the CJOG website.
The Faster FOIA bill, filed by the same senators and creating a commission to do a one year study of making FOIA even more efficient, is on a fast track, with committee markup scheduled for Thursday.
Sen. Leahy also reintroduced his Restore FOIA bill today. It puts back a provision taken out of the Homeland Security Act tightening the definition of Critical Infrastructure Information and allows other agencies to disclose CII they receive independently and in the course of their regulatory or other responsibilities.
And we’re told Rep. Waxman will file a new version of his Restore Open Government Act which would have revoked the Ashcroft Memo (crimping FOIA requests) and the Card Memo (telling agencies to step up their safeguarding of sensitive but unclassified information). It also had provisions to open advisory committee hearings.
The Sunshine in Government Initiative has begun an effort to build support on the Hill for the OPEN Government Act. We’ve been told there will be an opportunity to submit additional provisions for consideration. One we’ve discussed would be to expand the impact statement concept to include departments and agencies, so that when new rules are drawn that affect FOIA, the agency has to make that clear and also detail the impact.
If you have some other thoughts, please let me know.
Pete Weitzel
