-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun, 27 Jan 2008 10:53 pm Subject: On His Way Out of the White House, Bush Turns Off Our Lights and Locks Our Doors White House Trying To ‘Eliminate’ FOIA Office http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/26/leahy-foia/ In August, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government reported that “current government handling of FOIA requests is deteriorating” and that the Justice Department was “consistently granted the lowest percentage of [FOIA] appeals of any agency.” On New Years Eve, facing “congressional pushback against the Bush administration’s movement to greater secrecy,” President Bush signed the OPEN Government Act, toughening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The legislation — unanimously passed by the House and Senate — would push agencies to respond more quickly to records requests. But now, the White House is doing everything it can to neuter the law. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) said yesterday that Bush’s FY2009 “funds for the Office of Government Information Services authorized under the newly enacted OPEN Government Act will be shifted to the Department of Justice” from the National Archives. Congress Daily reports: “But by shifting the funding to the Justice Department, OMB would effectively eliminate the office, because it appears no similar operation would be created there,” according to an aide to Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT). […] National Archives officials are relatively independent of political pressure, the staffer explained, “but DOJ is different.” Government transparency advocates consider the department hostile to efforts to improve FOIA responsiveness, in part because it represents agencies sued by FOIA requesters. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a cosponsor of the OPEN Government legislation said he “does agree with Senator Leahy and would oppose that effort” of the adminstration. The Justice Department’s efforts to protect government secrecy are notorious. In fact, in the 109th Congress, the Department “squelched efforts to pass the OPEN Government Act.” But even initially “putting [funding] in DOJ would essentially obviate what Leahy and Cornyn did with the legislation,” said Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org Bush’s noncompliance with the legislation makes clear his effort to return to his old ways of egregious government secrecy. Comments » Feingold says: http://feingold.senate.gov/ ~feingold/ statements/ 08/ 01/ 20080125.htm January 25, 2007 “The conduct of Senate Republicans yesterday was shameless. After weeks of insisting that it is absolutely critical to finish the FISA legislation by February 1, even going so far as to object to a one-month extension of the Protect America Act, they obstructed all efforts to actually work on the bill. "Now they want to simply ram the deeply flawed Intelligence Committee bill through the Senate. They refused to allow amendments to be offered or voted on, including my straight-forward amendment to require that the government provide copies of FISA Court orders and pleadings for review in a classified setting, so that Members of Congress can understand how FISA has been interpreted and is being applied. "If the Republicans succeed in cutting off debate on Monday, the Senate won’t even get to vote on the amendment Senator Dodd and I want to offer to deny retroactive immunity to telecom companies that allegedly cooperated with the administration’s illegal wiretapping program. “Democrats should not allow the Republicans to ram this bill through the Senate without amendments. Monday’s cloture vote will be a test of whether the majority is willing to stand up to the administration and stand up for our rights.” Comment by 99Luf Balloons — January 26, 2008 @ 11:52 am The only thing ANY Republican is now is an obstructionist to this government functioning. PURGE ALL Republicans from ALL offices, everywhere -- local, state and federal. Comment by 99Luf Balloons — January 26, 2008 @ 11:53 am Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year. ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com
