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Lone US senator attempts to block bill challenging government secrecy
Source: The Guardian
Lone US senator attempts to block bill challenging government secrecy
Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Monday 8 December 2014 21.11 GMT
New legislation designed to challenge the ingrained secrecy of the US government and open up federal agencies to greater public scrutiny is on the verge of collapse after a single Democratic senator, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, effectively blocked its passage.
The Foia Improvement Act of 2014 has cleared all its major procedural hurdles with unanimous support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate judiciary committee. Its overwhelming bipartisan backing has offered a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise gridlocked Congress.
But unless Rockefeller agrees to drop his last-minute objections to the legislation by the end of Monday, its chances of coming to a vote by the end of this Congress are all but dead. The bill, which has been two years in the making, is backed by more than 70 good governance organisations and is seen as a critical step towards a more open and accountable flow of public information.
Amy Bennett of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of groups that have led the push for the changes, said that Rockefeller’s spoke in the wheel “cannot be allowed to stop a reform bill that would undoubtedly help the public. The bottom line is that this is a good bill and should be signed into law.”
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Ed Pilkington in New York
theguardian.com, Monday 8 December 2014 21.11 GMT
New legislation designed to challenge the ingrained secrecy of the US government and open up federal agencies to greater public scrutiny is on the verge of collapse after a single Democratic senator, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, effectively blocked its passage.
The Foia Improvement Act of 2014 has cleared all its major procedural hurdles with unanimous support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate judiciary committee. Its overwhelming bipartisan backing has offered a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise gridlocked Congress.
But unless Rockefeller agrees to drop his last-minute objections to the legislation by the end of Monday, its chances of coming to a vote by the end of this Congress are all but dead. The bill, which has been two years in the making, is backed by more than 70 good governance organisations and is seen as a critical step towards a more open and accountable flow of public information.
Amy Bennett of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of groups that have led the push for the changes, said that Rockefeller’s spoke in the wheel “cannot be allowed to stop a reform bill that would undoubtedly help the public. The bottom line is that this is a good bill and should be signed into law.”
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/08/senator-block-bill-challenging-government-secrecy-rockefeller
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