July 7, 2008<\/p>\n
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510<\/p>\n
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510<\/p>\n
Dear Mr. Chairman and Senator Specter:<\/p>\n
We write on behalf of the undersigned group of business, public interest, and historical organizations to endorse the OPEN FOIA Act (S. 2746), which would ensure transparency by requiring that every statutory carve-out to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) expressly reference section 552(b)(3) of that Act. These statutory exemptions limit public access to information under the FOIA and need to be openly discussed prior to enactment.<\/p>\n
As you know, the intent of the FOIA, ensuring an open and accountable government, has been seriously undermined by members of Congress who attempt to limit public access to government information through inconspicuous provisions buried deep in proposed legislation. Such provisions can establish new FOIA exemptions under section 552(b)(3), often without any public debate about whether the new exemption is necessary or appropriate. Passage of S. 2746 is vitally important because it will require that every proposed new carve-out to the FOIA specifically reference the Act.<\/p>\n
To preserve the ideals of openness that FOIA embodies, bills that exempt records from FOIA should be transparent about their intent and effect. By requiring that every proposed FOIA carveout specifically reference 5 U.S.C. Section 552(b)(3), the OPEN FOIA Act will give members of the public and open government advocates the tools they need to find, analyze and challenge these hidden exemptions before they are passed into law. We therefore urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to report S. 2746 favorably and help it move quickly to the Senate floor for passage.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Alliance for Patient Safety<\/p>\n
The Association of American Publishers<\/p>\n
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons<\/p>\n
American Association of Law Libraries<\/p>\n
American Association of Small Property Owners<\/p>\n
American Civil Liberties Union<\/p>\n
American Library Association<\/p>\n
Awake In Philly<\/p>\n
Bill of Rights Defense Committee<\/p>\n
California First Amendment Coalition<\/p>\n
Center for Democracy and Technology<\/p>\n
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington<\/p>\n
Citizens Watch<\/p>\n
Citizen Outreach Project<\/p>\n
Defending Dissent Foundation<\/p>\n
Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/p>\n
Essential Information<\/p>\n
iSolon.org<\/p>\n
James Madison Project<\/p>\n
Knowledge Ecology International<\/p>\n
Liberty Coalition<\/p>\n
Maine Association of Broadcasters<\/p>\n
Minnesota Coalition on Government Information<\/p>\n
The Multiracial Activist<\/p>\n
National Freedom of Information Coalition<\/p>\n
National Security Archive<\/p>\n
New Jersey Foundation for Open Government<\/p>\n
OMB Watch<\/p>\n
Open Society Policy Center<\/p>\n
OpenTheGovernment.org<\/p>\n
People For the American Way<\/p>\n
Project on Government Oversight<\/p>\n
Public Citizen<\/p>\n
The Rutherford Institute<\/p>\n
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation<\/p>\n
Washington Coalition for Open Government<\/p>\n
Woodhull Freedom Foundation<\/p>\n
David F. Jackson,
Freelance Investigative Journalist<\/p>\n
Richard P. Kleeman, Former Chairman,
National Freedom of Information Committee,
Society of Professional Journalists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
July 7, 2008 The Honorable Patrick LeahyCommittee on the JudiciaryUnited States SenateWashington, DC 20510 The Honorable Arlen SpecterCommittee on the JudiciaryUnited States SenateWashington, DC 20510 Dear Mr. Chairman and Senator Specter: We write on...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[60,9],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-government-agencies-signed-by-tma","category-advocacy-and-letters","tag-advocacy-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Advocacy-Work.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-q5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3959,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions\/3959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}