The fortieth anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law by President Johnson on July 4, 1966, was marked with the release of several interesting and informative publications.
The colorful and contentious history behind the adoption of the Act was described by Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive based on documents obtained from the Johnson Library. See “Freedom of Information at 40.” The legislative history of the Freedom of Information Act is newly available from the National Security Archive here.
The FOIA improvement plans that were recently developed by executive branch agencies were critically assessed by OpenTheGovernment.org in a new report. See “FOIA’s 40th Anniversary: Agencies Respond to the President’s Call for Improved Disclosure of Information.”
“The federal government continues to fall further behind in getting information to people seeking public records under the Freedom of Information Act,” according to a study (pdf) by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. “By far the heaviest use of the Freedom of Information Act comes from the nation’s businesses, seeking government records on contracts or for a host of other commercial uses,” another Coalition report found.
Sixty-eight countries now have freedom of information statutes, according to an updated survey by David Banisar published by freedominfo.org. See “Freedom of Information Around the World 2006.”
I chatted yesterday with reporter Julie Corwin of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty about “40 Years Of The Freedom Of Information Act”.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.
FAS is launching the Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) to build a new, transpartisan vision of government that works – that has the capacity to achieve ambitious goals while adeptly responding to people’s basic needs.