|
|
Translate:
              Congress begins reversing secrecy
Friday, December 21st, 2007 Although the current Democratic-led session of Congress began its end-of-year recess with only a mediocre list of accomplishments, it did start to reverse the slide of the Bush administration into greater government secrecy.Both the House and Senate handily approved legislation this week that strengthens the federal Freedom of Information Act and reaffirms that citizens have the right to know what their government is up to. It’s the first major revamping of the FOIA in 10 years and, most important, begins to reestablish the fact that open government is intrinsic to the operations of a successful democracy, an ideal that President Bush and his cohorts dampened in the past seven years. Foremost in the reforms is an indirect reversal of former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s order in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, in which he instructed federal agencies to lean against releasing information if they were uncertain about how its being made public would impact national security. We’ve seen too often since then how the Ashcroft order was abused to essentially block citizens and the media from gaining requested information. The new legislation sets up more responsive guidelines for agencies responding to FOI requests. Most important, it restores the presumption that government information to be released unless there is a specific finding that disclosure would cause harm. Penalties on federal agencies that do not comply with the new rules have been substantially increased. In addition, the legislation brings nonproprietary information held by government contractors under the FOIA. Majority Democrats had planned a more expansive rolling back of the Bush secrecy initiatives. However, the party’s slim majorities in both chambers required more compromise with minority Republicans. Still, this strengthening of the FOIA provides a good start to letting the sunshine in which can be built upon in 2008. http://www.connpost.com/opinion/ci_7774070 Have Your Say: Congress begins reversing secrecy Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
|
Go to Forum
| Latest Topics
 Email This Page To A Friend Latest Headlines
More Breaking News  Archive |
The views expressed in the RINF news wire and newsletter are the sole responsibility of the author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster. RINF.COM: Breaking News & Alternative Media is Copyleft - Copy & Distribute Freely. News Forum |
Loading ...
