Legislation proposed by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) would create the first federal agency completely exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), giving it a dubious distinction that not even the Central Intelligence Agency, which is subject to FOIA, would share. In addition, the agency's advisory committees would be exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), shielding the agency from the very law designed to ensure advice is made with integrity and without undue influence of any special interest. Such exclusion is ironic given other controversial sections of the bill, such as provisions that would give liability protection to drug makers who might create drugs that do medical harm.
The new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) would coordinate the federal government's efforts to address biological, chemical and other threats to public health and would reside within the Department of Health and Human Services. The new agency would fund research and coordinate a national effort to make the country safer from such threats. Currently, these efforts are scattered among several federal agencies.
The unprecedented secrecy, as written into the bill passed out of committee on Oct. 17, received public criticism that the bill's sponsors had not anticipated. They have now promised a "do-over" to make the agency transparent and encourage the open exchange of scientific information.
Congressional staff will sit down on Dec. 14 with open-government advocates and members of the scientific community to craft better language. Open government advocates contend the current exemptions under FOIA and FACA, from which Burr carved deep loopholes for BARDA, are sufficient to protect any sensitive information the new agency may handle. These groups are hopeful the bill's sponsors can better codify specific circumstances and situations which would warrant further secrecy and thus abandon the blanket secrecy of the original text.