A compilation of hundreds of U.S. nuclear sites and activities that were to be declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency by the United States was transmitted to Congress last month by President Obama.
“The enclosed draft declaration lists each site, location, facility, and activity I intend to declare to the IAEA, and provides a detailed description of such sites, locations, facilities, and activities, and the provisions of the U.S.-IAEA Additional Protocol under which they would be declared,” the President wrote. “Each site, location, facility, and activity would be declared in order to meet the obligations of the United States of America with respect to these provisions.”
“The IAEA classification of the enclosed declaration is ‘Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive’,” the President noted in his May 5, 2009 transmittal letter, “however, the United States regards this information as ‘Sensitive but Unclassified’.”
But sensitive or not, the draft declaration was promptly published by the Government Printing Office. See “The List of Sites, Locations, Facilities, and Activities Declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” message from the President of the United States, May 6, 2009 (267 pages, 13 MB PDF file).
One month of a government shutdown is in the books, but how many more months will (or can) it go? Congress is paralyzed, but there are a few spasms of activity around healthcare and the prospects of a continuing resolution to punt this fight out until January or later.
At a period where the federal government is undergoing significant changes in how it hires, buys, collects and organizes data, and delivers, deeper exploration of trust in these facets as worthwhile.
Moving postsecondary education data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that the U.S. Department of Education can meet its legislative mandates in an era of constrained federal resources.
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