Search Results from beSpacific
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings to examine the current lack of hospital emergency surge capacity. The hearings will focus on the widening mismatch between the growing demand for emergency care and available supply, impact of the Administration’s Medicaid...
How Large is China's Economy? Does it Matter? Wayne M. Morrison and Michael F. Martin, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, February 13, 2008 [via IWS Documented News Service] Summary: "China's rapid economic growth since 1979 has transformed it into...
"For the first time in well over a decade, Congress has enacted amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. No changes to the Act’s nine exemptions were made. Rather, the amendments address a range of procedural issues impacting FOIA administration,...
Alliance for Taxpayer Access: "President Bush has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from...
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement: "Last year, Rep. Henry A. Waxman released the first comprehensive assessment of government contracting under the Bush Administration. The report, entitled Dollars, Not Sense: Government Contracting Under...
Eight Million Pages of New Material for Researchers on Nazi and Japanese War Crimes, Washington, D.C.: "The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), the group tasked with locating, declassifying, and making publicly available U.S....
Press release: "The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously approved a bill aimed at substantially enhancing and expanding the accessibility, accountability, and openness of the federal government. The Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005, or the OPEN...
OpenTheGovernment.org: "Report Finds Federal Government Still More Secretive in 2005: Government secrecy saw further expansion in 2005 despite growing public concern, according to the Secrecy Report Card 2006." Secrecy Report Card 2006 - Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government...
National Security Archive: LBJ Refused Ceremony, Undercut Bill with Signing Statement, Censored Moyers' Openness Language on July 4, 1966. Complete Legislative History of the FOIA CDT: "Agencies Are Not Living Up to FOIA Obligations - Report On the 40th anniversary...
The Environmental Opinions of Judge Samuel Alito (6 pages, PDF, January 06, 2006 Summary: "The nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to serve on the Supreme Court has prompted close scrutiny of his judicial opinions during 15 years as...
Following up on related postings in the past several days, see the following references, resources, statements and news: Electronic Surveillance: 50 USC 1801 - 50 USC 1811. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Orders 1979-2004 Congressional Record: December...
In the Kingdom of the Half-Blind, by Bill Moyers. "This is the prepared text of the address delivered on December 9, 2005, by Bill Moyers for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library...
Press release: "Rep. Waxman asks the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees to remove a provision in the pending National Defense Authorization Act that would weaken the nation's open government laws by exempting "operational records" of the Defense Intelligence Agency...
Following up on an archive of postings on the Cheney Energy Task Force investigation, the embers of this controversy are still glowing: Press release, November 23, 2005: "United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today released a report(3 pages, PDF)...
"A new study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government...shows the use of FOIA exemptions to withhold information increased 22 percent between 2000 and 2004, despite the fact that federal agencies responded to 13 percent fewer requests for information....
From the Washington Post: FBI Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations Secret Surveillance Lacked Oversight From EPIC: "Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Informaton Act describe thirteen cases of possible FBI misconduct in intelligence investigations. The documents were released by...
"Marking International Right to Know Day, the National Security Archive commended the Department of State for including access to government information as one factor evaluated in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Transparency and information are essential to...
From EPIC: "The Transportation Security Administration has abandoned plans to use information from data aggregators to check airline passengers' backgrounds. TSA made the decision shortly before a working group issued a scathing report (19 pages, PDF) on the program. Last...
Press release: "Government agencies are expanding secrecy in many areas, according to the findings of a report released today. The 2005 Secrecy Report Card, the second annual report on secrecy from OpenTheGovernment.org, found secrecy in 2004 extended to more classified...
The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government has issued two new reports, one of which addresses overall federal agency responsiveness to FOIA requests (the overwhelming majority of which come from the public not the media), and the second which provides...
Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment: A Progress Report on Information Sharing for Homeland Security "Christopher Cox (R-CA) opened this morning's Subcommittee hearing on information sharing for homeland security, what he called “an indispensable part of this...
Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy: "Legislation passed by the U.S. Senate on Friday will bring increased sunshine to the federal legislative process, and was another step toward strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), its sponsors say. The reform,...
On June 9, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved S.1181, "a bill to ensure an open and deliberate process in Congress by providing that any future legislation to establish a new exemption to section 552 of title 5, United States Code...
CSIS Commission Backs Open Dissemination of Unclassified Fundamental Research, June 9, 2005: "Self-regulation within the scientific community is an important aspect of achieving national security goals, according to a CSIS panel report on science and security. The report also rejects...
Press release, June 7, 2005, Cornyn, Leahy Call For Greater TransparencyIn Congressional FOIA Exemption Attempts -Congress should not establish new secrecy provisions through secret means: "U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to ensure...
Press release, May 12, 2005: Rep. Waxman Introduces Legislation to Restore Transparency and Open Government Laws: "Today Rep. Henry A. Waxman introduced legislation to reverse the Bush Administration’s assault on open government by restoring laws promoting transparency. The Restore Open...
"A new open access e-journal entitled "Open Government: a journal on freedom of information" published its inaugural issue on the 22nd March 2005. The journal, funded by School of Business Information at Liverpool John Moores University aims to publish research...
Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security hearing, Openness in Government and Freedom of Information: Examining the OPEN Government Act of 2005, March 15, 2005. Includes links to testimony and member statements (HTML format) Sen. John Cornyn's (R–Texas) speech on...
This page, which will be updated throught Sunshine Week, provides summaries and links to selected national and state sources on the open government issue. Related resources: Government secrecy: dark cloud over open society - Inside the First Amendment, by Paul...
Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy today: "Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democratic member of the committee, introduced legislation on Thursday to establish an advisory Commission on Freedom...
Following up on my posting February 16, Open Government Act of 2005 Introduced Today With Bipartisan Support, see this DOJ analysis of the legislation's specific proposals. "If the introduction of this proposed legislation does lead to the enactment of major...
The Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005 (OPEN Government Act, S. 394) was introduced today by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont). For related documents on this bill which has bipartisan support on the...