Update 5/27/05

A quick look at what’s happening on open government issues in Congress:

Shield Law(S 340, HR 581): NAA and MLRC both have groups working on this and anticipate a House hearing in mid-summer on the Free Flow of Information Act. There are 30 co-sponsors in the House and six so far in the Senate (Sen. Jeffords, I-VT, signed on Thursday.) More works needs to be done there to gain support. The absolute privilege provision is causing some concern, particularly when national security hypotheticals are raised. Controversy on use of sources isn’t helping.

On the litigation front, 34 state attorneys general have joined in an amicus brief that will be filed later today urging the Supreme Court to hear the Miller-Cooper case. The brief is expected to argue that the absence of a federal law undercuts state shield laws.

Homeland Security Funding (HR 1817): Congress loves to load up appropriations bills. This one started out with troubling “information protection” provisions that created statutory exemptions from FOIA for critical infrastructure information and chemical plant vulnerability assessments and site security plans. The bill went to three committees and came to the House floor with three sets of markups. In the translation, the sections dealing with chemical plants security were deleted. The CII section (334) survived but was modified to narrowly define the information being protected. The new language should minimize, if not eliminate, collateral impact on records held by other agencies or state and local governments. The Senate’s next.

National Defense Authorization Act (S 2549): Another funding bill with lots of interesting stuff that has no fiscal impact. Section 901 would give the Defense Intelligence Agency a FOIA exemption for its operational files involving foreign intelligence and counterintelligence. The CIA won an exemption for foreign intelligence files in 1984 but only after extensive public debate and commitment that it would not result in additional information being withheld from the public. (The CIA argued operational file data was never released, anyway.) So far the DIA exemption is moving forward without discussion, let alone debate. The bill is on the full Senate calendar.

. Asbestos Claims (HR 1360, S852): Another effort to create a statutory exemption from FOIA, this covering records of the multi-billion dollar claims Congress would establish in an effort to end asbestos litigation. A revision has been proposed in committee to that would allow someone to seek an individual claims exemption but it would still be subject to the normal FOIA review process.

The OPEN Government Act (S 394, HR 867) and Faster FOIA (S 589, HR 1620): No change since our last update. Faster FOIA, calling for a year-long study of FOIA and its implementation, will almost certainly move first. We’re supporting it through the Sunshine in Government Initiative.

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Publication education on open government: ASNE has asked the Knight Foundation to again fund its Sunshine Week project and planning is underway for an even greater effort in 2006, the 40^th anniversary of FOIA. FOIA’s official birthday is July 4; Sunshine Week will be March 12-19.

APME had it’s first FOI Roundtable in Dayton with a hot topic on the table: Ohio’s controversial law that denies public access to records of concealed weapons permits (although journalists can get the records and at least two papers obtained the records and published the names for their areas). The Dayton discussion, which included concealed-carriers, police, unarmed citizens and journalists, was lively, at times provocative. The Dayton Daily News published a transcript of the discussion Sunday: http://www.daytondailynews.com/search/content/opinion/daily/0522transcript.html