VITAMEDIAS
Homeland Security Bill Compromises Federal FOI Act: In its first act since the midterm elections, Congress is turning its back on a bipartisan Freedom of Information Act compromise in favor of a sweeping proposal that would hide virtually all information submitted to the government’s new Department of Homeland Security.
The new version of the homeland security bill [A bill to establish the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes] speeding through Congress includes language that blows an enormous hole in the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Society of Professional Journalists, the Radio and Television News Directors Association and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today called on Congress to replace that language with a more palatable compromise worked out in the Senate over the summer.