Mystery senator blocks effort to expand public’s right to know

On April 12, the Senate Judiciary Community unanimously (unanimously!) passed the Open Government Act. The Act was sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). The bill would strengthen the federal Freedom of Information Act, according to the Society of Professional Journalists. The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a similar measure in March — but that bill was blocked from reaching the Senate, according to the SPJ. If approved, the Open Government Act would reduce delays in releasing government records and hold public officials accountable when they break the law.

Imagine...a public official being held accountable by law for breaking the law. Considering the roadblocks the current Administration has erected to prevent the public, journalists, even CIA agents, from learning the truth about everything from what led to the attack on Iraq to what happened in U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ office, the OGA would be a godsend.

Currently, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows journalists, everyday citizens, students...everyone, access to public records such as police reports, public officials’ voting records, financial records of public bodies, financial contributions to candidates for public office. The FOIA also allows any citizen access to information regarding campaign contributions. Essentially, the FOIA allows you to know what your government--be it local, state, federal, even your local library board--is doing. Everyday citizens have the right to know how public officials are spending taxpayer dollars and how those decisions will affect you, the guy down the street in the green truck and your dry cleaner, down the line.

“It refers to your right to examine records and documents and to your right to observe – and participate in – your government’s decision-making processes,” according to the Society of Professional Journalists. “Government processes, activities and decisions may affect you directly or indirectly. They determine the amount of taxes you pay and the kinds of government services you receive. Governments and their agencies regulate many activities in your home and business life. Your ability to participate in, monitor and, perhaps, protest government decisions relates directly to your ability to know what your government is doing,” SPJ says.

Unfortunately some governmental bodies make it as difficult as possible for you and for journalists to access the information you need. By putting a hold on the Open Government Act, the mystery senator not only is blocking access to determine who put the brakes on the act, but is making a mockery of the FOIA. The FOIA is one of the most important pieces of legislation ever passed; it offers everyone the chance to make sure their government is playing by the rules, it gives us all the chance to make sure “checks and balances” are being used properly. FOIA gives us all the chance to be government watchdogs.

You might remember a document called “The Bill of Rights.” The very first amendment to the bill reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

By putting a secret hold on the Open Government Act, is this “secret” senator not, in effect abridging the rights of the freedom of the press? If journalists are not allowed to know who put the hold on the OGA, does that not abridge their rights to inform the public of what our government is doing? Obviously, I am biased toward journalists, being one myself. But I also am an American and it just strikes me as unconscionable that a person elected by the public to hold public office would behave in such a way as to make himself or herself look, for lack of a better word, chicken. An as un upstanding (I’m giving this person the benefit of the doubt, here) member of our federal government, why would one choose to so flagrantly mock the Bill of Rights and FOIA?

The simple answer is FOIA does not cover Congress, the federal judiciary or the President. It does, however, cover the Executive Office of the President, according to the SPJ.

SPJ officials say that this is not the first time a secret hold has been used to prevent open government legislation from reaching the floor. In August 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) put a hold on a bill to create a searchable public database of all federal grants and contracts. Stevens' role was revealed only after online public advocates and journalists forced senators to go on the record about whether they placed the hold, according to the SPJ.

Thankfully, another federal law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), mandates that meetings of special federal task forces be open to the public. But that has not stopped some such task forces from violating FACA. According to an SPJ report, in July 2001 Congress’ General Accounting Office sued Vice-President Dick Cheney, alleging that Cheney’s energy task force met in secret in violation of the FACA.

Also in 2001, according to SPJ, provisions of the Presidential Records Act were changed by an Executive Order signed by President George W. Bush. That order requires the National Archives to inform a former president (or his/her estate) that records are eligible for release. It also gives the sitting president and the former president the power to block release of records covered by the Presidential Records Act.

Too many, and too often, public bodies and public officials are either ignoring the public’s right to know or doing the best they can to make it nearly impossible to obtain information that is by law available to the public. This has been going on in this country since its conception and continues to this day. Has the public, have we just come to accept that this is the way things are? Has the Patriot Act made us so wary that we’ve become too afraid to actually question the government? If so, what a sad state affairs we have entered. We have a right to know what our government is doing; we have to take back that right.

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