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2004

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The Information and Access Program focuses on defending and advancing the public's right to know. Unfortunately access to government information is under near constant attack. This program tracks and analyzes policies that affect the public's right to know and works to improve them. Our goal is to increase the quality of, access to, and use of government information.

Information & Access News for 2005. For news from previous years, see the Archive.

News

House Caves on Telecom Immunity in FISA Bill 06/24/2008
After months of negotiations and stalled efforts, the House leadership reached common ground with the White House in passing a bill that reforms the legality of foreign surveillance and grants telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for assisting in warrantless wiretapping. On June 20, the House passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 6304) by a vote of 293 to 129. Despite opposition from key senators and the public interest community, at this point it appears likely to pass the Senate as well. Read More

House Considers New Legislation at Chemical Security Hearing 06/24/2008
On June 12, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials held a hearing on the current status of the chemical security program at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and considered two bills to amend the program. Read More

Improving Information Sharing at DHS 06/24/2008
On June 11, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment held a hearing on a bill (H.R. 6193) introduced by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), chair of the subcommittee, to improve information sharing at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Read More

Obama and Coburn Shine Brighter Light on Government Spending 06/10/2008
Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have joined forces again to craft legislation that would increase the transparency of how the federal government spends taxpayers' money. The Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077), introduced June 3, is a follow-up to the 2006 Transparency Act, which was also spearheaded by the two senators. Obama and Coburn, along with Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and John McCain (R-AZ), introduced the new legislation with the goals of making important new data easily accessible and enabling citizens to hold our government accountable for the fiscal stewardship of our shared resources. Read More

Covering Up Mistakes of Torture and Rendition 06/10/2008
The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a report that investigated the case of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, who was taken into U.S. custody in 2002 and removed to Syria, where he was held by authorities for fourteen months. Two House committees held a hearing June 5 on allegations of torture that Arar says occurred during his imprisonment. Read More

EPA Asks Public, "What Do You Want to Know?" 06/10/2008
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invited the public to participate in a week of online dialogue to develop ideas to improve access to environmental information. Read More

USDA Dropping Shroud over Pesticide Use Data 05/28/2008
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced May 21 that it is eliminating the only program that tracks pesticide use in the United States. The USDA claimed it can no longer afford the program, known as the Agricultural Chemical Usage Reports. Consumers, environmental organizations, scientists, and farmers oppose the move. Read More

Committee Passes Sewage Right-to-Know Bill 05/28/2008
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the Raw Sewage Community Right-to-Know Act (H.R. 2452) May 15, bringing the American public one step closer to knowing when it is safe to swim in local waters. The bill amends the Clean Water Act to provide stricter standards for public notification of sewage overflows. Read More

A Failure of Access, a Shortcoming of Technology 05/28/2008
Access to government data and other information often falls behind expectations due to the government's failure to use advanced technologies to meet the needs of modern day society. In "Hack, Mash, & Peer," Jerry Brito, Senior Research Fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, discusses the shortcomings of government access and technological solutions to create broad access to government records. Read More

EPA Official Forced Out for Being Effective 05/13/2008
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 administrator Mary Gade felt the full force of Dow Chemical's influence in Washington when on May 1, she was told to resign or be fired by June 1. Gade, who used to represent industries and often advocated against increased regulation, was on the other side of protracted negotiations with Dow over clean-up of dioxin contamination at its plant in Midland, MI. Gade chose to resign following the ultimatum. Read More

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