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A Citizen’s Guide on Using The Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request Government Records (text version, pdf version), First Report by the Committee on Government Reform, June 23, 2003, House Report 108-172. The Freedom of Information Act Privacy Act of 1974
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a ruling on June 20 in AFL-CIO v. FEC, terminating the Commission’s “public release of all investigatory files not exempted from the Freedom of Information Act.” See this article for more information – Appeals court blocks FEC from documents release.
An interview with Steven Aftergood, Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists: Government Secrecy in the Age of Information, by Joe Fitzgerald and Antonia Badway, Biodefense Quarterly, Summer 2003 (a publication of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies).
In Another Casualty (registration re’q), Margaret M. Jobe, Chair, Notable Documents Panel, American Library Association’s Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) reviews the federal databases and resources that have been removed from the public domain by the Bush Administration in the name of national security, as well as those that may be eliminated in the near …
From GPO Access: Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (H.R. 2), TEXT | PDF, Signed into law on May 28, 2003, H.R. 2 amends the Internal Revenue Code to accelerate the increase to the $1,000 child tax credit to include 2003 and 2004. It also maintains the levels and the sunset established …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists maintains an extensive resource on Bush Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy. Included are links to: Presidential Documents, Related White House Press Briefings, and Other Official Documents on Bush Administration Secrecy Policy.
Miriam Drake, Professor Emerita, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology has published part one of a two part article, Government Doublethink: Protection or Supression in Information, in which she reviews and addresses government efforts, through regulation and policy initiatives, to remove a range of documents from the public arena based on national security concerns.
The NSA has proposed a FOIA exemption for “files that document the means by which foreign intelligence or counterintelligence is collected through technical systems.” Also via FAS, see the text of the proposed exemption, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, S. 747. From OMBWatch, “The Senate language, included in the proposed FY …
Officials Who Failed to Put Hijackers on Watch List Not Named. “Seven months after telling Congress he would do so, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, has yet to provide the names of agency officials responsible for one of the most glaring intelligence mistakes leading up to the attacks of Sept. 11, according …
From the HHS Office on Civil Rights, this comprehensive resource, Medical Privacy – National Standards to Protect the Privacy of Personal Health Information, includes documentation for consumers, general background information, HIPAA regulations & standards, compliance & enforcement, educational materials, and HIPAA-related links.
The scale, scope and challenges inherent in the successful implementation of large-scale e-gov initiatives is well defined by this article, NASA rethinks Web site approach, which states that “the agency has more than 3,000 Web sites hosting 4 million pages of information,” which it is now working to make accessible via the main website.
Several sources have recently reported on the White House refusal to release data and related sources on events that led up to the 9/11 attacks which comprise a 800-plus page Congressional study completed last December. Reasons for the unwillingess to provide the public with access to the currently ‘secret’ report range from the need to …
