Sunshine Week, which falls this year on March 11-17, is an annual effort by news organizations, libraries and public interest groups to focus public attention on the importance of open government.
Next week, dozens of programs across the country will explore the costs of secrecy, the virtues of openness, and the path forward.
Next week may also see House action on three open government bills that have been advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform under the leadership of Rep. Henry Waxman.
The pending bills include one on Freedom of Information Act amendments, one on amendments to the Presidential Records Act, and one on disclosure of donations to Presidential libraries. Markup of the bills will take place on March 8, and House floor action is expected next week.
The strength of our nation’s data policy isn’t just in the rules we write, but in how effectively we translate those rules into a system that prioritizes the public good. Join us in this movement to design and build more resilient national data policies.
The human cost is measured in deaths. The financial cost is measured in the $52 billion taxpayers pay annually end stage renal disease – double NASA’s budget.
Gilman Louie, Longest Serving Board Chair of the Federation of American Scientists, Named Chair Emeritus
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.