Key Dates: Secrecy and the Bush Administration

Inauguration Day (1/20/01) Administration freezes Clinton-era regulations, without allowing for public comment.

10/12/01 Attorney General John Ashcroft, reversing Clinton policy, encourages agencies to deny Freedom of Information Act requests if a "sound legal basis" exists.

10/26/01 President Bush signs U.S.A. Patriot Act, expanding law enforcement powers and government surveillance.

2/22/02 Congress's General Accounting Office sues Vice President Dick Cheney for refusing to disclose records of his energy task force; the GAO eventually loses its case. A separate private case is pending.

3/19/02 White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card directs federal agencies to protect sensitive security information.

11/25/02 Bush signs Homeland Security Act. Its provisions restrict public access to information filed by companies about "critical infrastructure," among other matters.

01/3/03 Administration asks, in papers filed before the Supreme Court, for significant narrowing of the Freedom of Information Act.

3/25/03 Bush issues standards on classified material, favoring secrecy and reversing provisions on openness.

posted by Cyndy | link | | |