OPPOSE BROAD FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT EXEMPTION (SEC. 204) IN HOMELAND SECURITY ACT
July 12, 2002
Dear Member of Congress:
The Administration's proposal for a Department of Homeland Security includes language (Sec. 204) requiring the federal government to withhold from the public any information that is "voluntarily" turned over to the Department by "non-Federal entities or individuals regarding infrastructure vulnerabilities or other vulnerabilities to terrorism" even when disclosure of the information would cause no harm and even when disclosure could lead to improved security. The undersigned organizations urge you to oppose the Administration's blanket Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption.
The intent of Section 204 is to encourage the sharing of information that would strengthen national security against terrorist attacks on and through computer systems. In practice, however, the legislation could have devastating effects on the work of the government to protect public health, safety and security, as well as government accountability.
- The provision would bar the federal government from disclosing information regarding environmental hazards, health hazard, product defects and other dangers.
- The exemption would give industry shelter from the consequences of violating the nation's environmental, consumer protection, and health and safety laws.
- Indeed, an effect of the legislation may be to invite companies to engage in a "race to voluntarily disclose," so that information cannot be made publicly available without their permission.
- Because the legislation does not prohibit disclosures by companies themselves, or their employees and competitors, it does not fulfill its stated purpose of protecting critical infrastructure information from being made available to terrorists. Some of the information it covers is not really sensitive data that could lead to harm to critical national infrastructures, but is, instead, information that companies would rather keep behind closed doors.
- A new FOIA exemption designed to protect voluntarily-submitted private sector information is not needed. FOIA case law makes it clear that existing exemptions contained in the FOIA provide adequate protection against harmful disclosures of critical infrastructure information.
Congress should not pass provisions with such profound unintended consequences without considering their implications very carefully.
Sincerely,
Mary Alice Baish
Associate Washington Affairs Representative
American Association of Law Libraries
Laura W. Murphy
Director
Washington National Office
American Civil Liberties Union
Lynne Bradley
Director, Government Relations
American Library Association
John L. Kirkwood
President and Chief Executive Officer
American Lung Association
James H. Lesar
President
Assassination Archives and Research Center
Prudence S. Adler
Associate Executive Director
Association of Research Libraries
Jim Dempsey
Deputy Director
Center for Democracy and Technology
Scott Harshbarger
President
Common Cause
Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
David L. Sobel
General Counsel
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Steven Aftergood
Project Director
Federation of American Scientists
Gary D. Bass
Executive Director
OMB Watch
Alyssondra Campaigne
Legislative Director
Natural Resources Defense Council
Danielle Brian
Executive Director
Project on Government Oversight
Lucy Dalglish
Executive Director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press