We were sad to learn, belatedly, of the recent deaths of two familiar figures in the rather small world of government secrecy policy.
Jeanne Schauble, the longtime director of declassification at the National Archives, died last October. She helped oversee and implement the declassification of more than a billion pages of historical records since 1995. Her NARA colleague Michael Kurtz said last year that “she set a high standard for government service.”
Michael Resnick was Senior Director of Information Sharing Policy at the White House until his death from cancer in February. If the current policy on Controlled Unclassified Information is not a disaster — and so far, it’s not — that is largely because Mr. Resnick was willing to engage in sometimes heated discussions with public interest groups and to reconsider his own position.
As far as we could tell, no obituaries for Ms. Schauble or Mr. Resnick appeared in any national newspaper. They weren’t famous. But they were honest, honorable and skilled public servants. Anyone who crossed their paths will remember them.
With wildfire risk increasing and the potential for destruction along with it continues to grow nationwide, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) today joins with other organizations to launch a new coalition, Partners in Wildfire Prevention.
Nuclear weapons budgeting is like agreeing to buying a house without knowing the sales price, the mortgage rate, or the monthly payment.
Employing a living approach to evidence synthesis, disseminated at a national level, is a streamlined way to enable evidence-based decision-making nationwide.
By providing essential funding mechanisms, the Bioeconomy Finance Program will reduce the risks inherent in biotechnology innovation, encouraging more private sector investment.