You're the watchdog

This is about you

Arizona Republic
March 16, 2008

 

Freedom of Information laws let you see whether your government is serving you and respecting your rights.

 

These so-called sunshine laws are relatively simple and user-friendly at both the state and federal levels.

 

You decide what you want to know. You become the watchdog. In this age of blogs and YouTube, you can share what you find out at the speed of a keystroke.

 

It is easy to forget the opportunity these laws represent for the average citizen, because Freedom of Information requests are frequently used by reporters in pursuit of a story. But even when reporters are the ones filing the petition, the facts they unearth provide information you can use to evaluate what your government is doing.

 

The watchdog's growl still comes from you.

 

Open government is still empowering you.

 

As James "Father of the Constitution" Madison put it: "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

 

Because knowledge really is power, it would be naive to expect the powerful to welcome scrutiny.

 

Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had to be brought "kicking and screaming" to sign the original federal Freedom of Information Act in 1966, according to Bill Moyers, a journalist who was his press secretary at the time.

 

"He hated the thought of journalists rummaging in government closets," Moyers subsequently wrote.

 

Fast-forward to Republican President Bush, who has used executive orders to limit use of the Freedom of Information Act and Presidential Records Act, according to a study released in July by OpenTheGovernment.org and People for the American Way.

 

One of the problems identified in that study was a backlog of requests for information, which meant "more people were waiting longer for less information." Partly to address that, Congress passed the OPEN Government Act, in December. It was the first significant reform of the Freedom of Information Act in more than a decade.

 

The law created a Freedom of Information ombudsman's office within the National Archives to address the backlog and promote accountability. Bush signed the bill but subsequently proposed a budget that effectively moved the ombudsman's office from the politically neutral Archives to the Justice Department. The move was denounced by dozens of open-government advocates, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors. There is a conflict of interest because the Justice Department's job includes defending federal agencies that deny Freedom of Information Act requests.

 

From the 1960s to the present, the tension remains between the public's right to know and the perceived need of politicians - both Democratic and Republican - to limit the amount of rummaging the public can do in government closets.

 

Happily, the quest for openness is also bipartisan.

 

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, co-sponsors of last year's bill, have just introduced legislation that requires lawmakers to "explicitly and clearly" state when a proposed law includes exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act. Hundreds such exemptions have been buried in complex laws, Leahy's office says.

 

The new bill is "a fitting start to Sunshine Week," Leahy said.

 

Sunshine Week is a fitting way to remind all the sons and daughters of the Founding Fathers that openness in government is not an abstract concept. It is a reality. It is a dynamic process.

 

Openness in government is not just an esoteric tool for reporters, either. It is for you, too. It gives you the power to make this most ambitious experiment in self-governance work the way it should.