Equipped with a one million dollar budget for the current fiscal year, the Public Interest Declassification Board will hold its first meeting on Saturday, February 25.
The Board, which serves a purely advisory function and does not have independent declassification authority, is chaired by L. Britt Snider, the former CIA Inspector General, and supported by the Information Security Oversight Office, which serves as executive secretariat.
The first meeting will be devoted mainly to administrative matters and will not be open to the public. A press release may be issued following the meeting, an official said. The Board is not subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The Bush Administration requested $655,000 for the Public Interest Declassification Board in Fiscal Year 2007.
When a hurricane hits, it’s all hands on deck – that goes for federal data, too. Pulling back from our investments in timely, accurate, and accessible public data will only make us less prepared and put us all at greater risk.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.
FAS has partnered with ICLEI USA to launch the CRI Local Advisory Council.