(c/o RGF)
>From the Secrecy News list....
SENATE BILL WOULD INCREASE BIODEFENSE SECRECY
A rapidly moving bill introduced in the Senate last week would
establish a new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Agency (BARDA) that would be categorically exempt from disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Ordinary FOIA exemptions place specific categories of information
beyond the reach of FOIA.
But the audacious new BARDA exemption would nullify the
applicability of the FOIA to an entire agency.
"Information that relates to the activities, working groups, and
advisory boards of the BARDA shall not be subject to disclosure
under section 552 of title 5, United States Code [i.e. the FOIA],
unless the Secretary or Director determines that such disclosure
would pose no threat to national security," the bill states.
(The FOIA, of course, already includes an exemption for properly
classified national security information.)
"Such a determination shall not be subject to judicial review,"
the bill adds, in an implicit acknowledgment that the proposed
secrecy policy might not survive independent scrutiny.
The bill, co-sponsored by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Majority
Leader Bill Frist, among others, was introduced on October 17 and
promptly reported out of Committee on October 24. It now awaits
action by the full Senate.
See S. 1873, a bill "to prepare and strengthen the biodefenses of
the United States against deliberate, accidental, and natural
outbreaks of illness":
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_cr/s1873.html
"Even intelligence agencies and the Defense Department do not have
blanket exemptions from FOIA," noted Nick Schwellenbach of the
Project on Government Oversight.
"Exempting BARDA would mean congressional and public oversight of
the agency and its important activities would be severely
curtailed," according to a statement on the POGO blog here:
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2005/10/bioshielding_in.html
"Secrecy is inappropriate when developing [drugs and other]
countermeasures for natural infectious disease," wrote Alan
Pearson and Lynn Klotz of the Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation in a letter to Senators.
"Robust and effective countermeasure development can take place
only in a climate of timely and free exchange of materials and
information," they wrote. See:
http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/archives/002155.php
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