Who In Congress Decides What You Can Know? Not the Experts

Here is a riddle: When is an expansion of the federal government’s ability to withhold information not a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption? When it doesn't amend the FOIA.  

In practical terms the distinction between a new FOIA exemption and what is referred to as a b(3) statute (named after the section of the Federal Code that exempts "information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law") is practically meaningless: both are ways Congress lets federal agencies keep information out of the public's hands. However, in practice, the fact FOIA is not actually amended when a new b(3) is created has major implications for the level of scrutiny the provision gets before being written into law.

FOIA Preserved in FDA Safety and Innovation Act

This morning, the Senate approved an amendment from Senator Leahy that preserves FOIA in the FDA Safety and Innovation Act. The original language in the S.3187, Section 708 would have allowed the FDA to deny the public access to information relating to drugs obtained from a federal, state, local, or foreign government agency, if the agency has requested that the information be kept confidential.

Where is the Department of Labor's Open Government Plan 2.0?

Under the terms of the Open Government Directive (OGD), the Administration encouraged agencies to view their open government plans as "living documents" that should be regularly revisited, and required agencies to update the plans every two years. Accordingly, on April 9, the White House put up a blog post celebrating the release of open government plans 2.0. The celebration was a bit premature, though, given that several agencies hadn't yet actually posted their plans for the public, and one major agency - the Department of Labor - has not posted a single update since its Version 1 of the plan was released on April 7, 2010.

Why Did Rodriguez Get Away with Destroying the Torture Tapes – and What Happened to the Rule of Law?

Yesterday, Andrew Sullivan asked in his column in the Daily Beast, “Why Did Rodriguez Destroy The Torture Tapes?” It was good to see someone call out that aspect of Rodriguez’s – and the CIA’s – illegality. Sullivan’s is an important question that Rodriguez answered in the shallow, self-congratulatory manner exhibited in the rest of the disturbing CBS 60 Minutes interview. Sullivan’s response to Rodriguez’s claims is well worth a read.

A question that Sullivan does not ask, nor has any other journalist to our knowledge, is “Why did Rodriguez get away with destroying the torture tapes?” When OpenTheGovernment.org Executive Director Patrice McDermott received the 2011 James Madison Award from the American Library Association, she devoted her acceptance remarks to the outrage of Rodriguez’s destruction of the tapes – despite a court order to preserve them – and the unwillingness of the Justice Department to hold him accountable.