{"id":379,"date":"2007-03-15T21:58:41","date_gmt":"2007-03-16T04:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=379"},"modified":"2007-07-04T09:37:01","modified_gmt":"2007-07-04T16:37:01","slug":"let-the-sunshine-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=379","title":{"rendered":"Let The Sunshine In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those who may have missed it, this is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunshineweek.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sunshine Week<\/a>. What is Sunshine Week?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;A national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public&#8217;s right to know.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In recognition of this special time, Henry Waxman&#8217;s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is <a href=\"http:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/story.asp?ID=1212&#038;Issue=Open+Government\" target=\"_blank\">proudly announcing<\/a> the passage of four bills that promote the goals of Sunshine Week:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>H.R. 1255, The Presidential Records Act Amendments:<\/strong> approved by a vote of 333-93, makes clear that presidential records belong to the American people, not the president who created them. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 will nullify a Bush executive order which gave former presidents &#8211; and their heirs &#8211; nearly unlimited authority to withhold or delay the release of their own records. If it becomes law, this legislation will ensure that a complete historical record is available to researchers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>H.R. 1254, The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act:<\/strong> approved by a vote of 390-34, will require organizations that raise money for presidential libraries to disclose information about their donors. This will eliminate a major loophole that allows presidential supporters to secretly give millions in support of a president&#8217;s legacy while that president remains in office.<\/li>\n<li><strong>H.R. 1309, The Freedom of Information Act Amendments:<\/strong> approved by a vote of 308-117, will strengthen the Freedom of Information Act and improve public access to government information. One key element of this legislation would restore the presumption of disclosure under FOIA that was eliminated by the Bush Administration in 2001.<\/li>\n<li><strong>H.R. 985, The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act:<\/strong> approved by a vote of 331-94, offers improved protections to federal whistleblowers who report wrongdoing to authorities. Federal employees and contractors are privy to information that enables them to play an essential role in ensuring government accountability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These bills are good start in undoing some of the damage that the Bush administration has done to the concept of an open and honest government. There is still more to be done and, of course, these bills have to pass in the senate and be signed by the President. On that score, Bush has already threatened to veto two of them: The Presidential Records Act and The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. He has also expressed opposition to the Freedom of Information Act. All three of these bills passed in the House with a margin greater than the two thirds required to override a veto, so the threat may never come to pass. The process is far from over and it is still discouraging to see how many legislators were willing to vote against these common sense measures to make government more accountable. But in honor of Sunshine Week, I&#8217;m going to focus on the positive and celebrate a Congress that is starting to do work that represents the people&#8217;s interest for a change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those who may have missed it, this is Sunshine Week. What is Sunshine Week? &#8220;A national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public&#8217;s right to know.&#8221; In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-press","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-67","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1182","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":0},"title":"Obama Already Undoing The Bush Era Of Secrecy","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/21\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One week ago I wrote that the Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End, noting that: George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. Well, on his first full day as president, Barack Obama has issued a series of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1176","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":1},"title":"Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. More documents have been classified than at any other time. White House officials have defied court orders to disclose data, calendars, and emails. They even claimed that the vice-president was not subject to Congressional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Censorship&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34884,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=34884","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":2},"title":"The &#8216;COVFEFE Act&#8217; Was Just Introduced in Congress to Preserve Trump&#8217;s Deranged Social Media","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/12\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Donald Trump took to Twitter to post one of his most coherent messages to date. It was a brief tweet that said only \"Despite the negative press covfefe\" (it was later deleted). Yep, that's it. And with that he communicated with his devoted disciples who all seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump covfefe","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-covfefe.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-covfefe.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-covfefe.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":819,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=819","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":3},"title":"George W. Bush&#8217;s Legacy Of Secrecy","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/4\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Joseph Wheelan, with George Mason University's History News Network, reminds us of a dangerous assault on open and honest government. It came in the form of George W. Bush's Executive Order 13233: The Presidential Records Act Executive Order. \"...this is not just another blow against openness; Bush's Executive Order 13233\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57102,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=57102","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":4},"title":"Utterly Deranged Trump Calls Special Counsel a &#8216;Radical Right Lunatic&#8217; Who &#8216;Planted&#8217; Evidence","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/13\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The indictments of Donald Trump on 37 felony counts of mishandling sensitive national security documents is obviously weighing heavily on him. And the closer he gets to his arraignment in Miami, the more his ordinarily nasty mood deteriorates even further. Click here to Tweet this article You know you're in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Crime&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Crime","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1475"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Insane, Straight Jacket","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-straight-jacket-insane.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-straight-jacket-insane.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-straight-jacket-insane.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=839","url_meta":{"origin":379,"position":5},"title":"Passport-Gate: Secrets In The House Of Bush","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/21\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In less than 24 hours, a story that began with the disclosure that State Department employees were peeking into the passport records of Barack Obama, it has come to light that the snooping also extended to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. While there is still much that is unknown, these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}