1/2/08

Federal Freedom of Information Act Amendments Signed Into Law.

S. 2488 was recently signed into law by the President. The bill is seen generally as a push back against increasing secrecy during this administration.

A good summary of its provisions can be found at this GovTrack.US summary of the bill HERE.

An AP story on the bill can be found HERE.

1 comment:

Thomas Jackson said...

When the President signed the Open Government Act of 2007 in the 11th Hour, he did nonetheless crack the door. It will take a full year for Government to become “open,” with the built in12 month delay in the in new law, but it will open the door. For the first time since the original act was implemented, federal government officials can be held accountable for violating the law. Had this new act been in place last year, the officials that used and twisted the act to keep documents out of the hands of a Coast Guard employee would be on a Federal Court Docket trying to stave off fines and jail time. TJ
And as a blogger am I a journalist? I certainly have more readers in more countries around the world than many small papers I'm aware of. The Thomas Jackson Center for Equal Civil Rights stats supports that.