Wall Street: Banking Lobbyists Block Transparency Bill, Advocates Say
By Matthew Cunningham-Cook
David Sirota
As states across the country continue to block the release of information about billions of dollars worth of public pension investments in Wall Street firms, transparency advocates had hoped a bill reforming the federal Freedom of Information Act would shed more light on the government’s dealings with the financial industry. But those hopes are in jeopardy as a last-minute move by Washington lawmakers is likely to maintain a culture of secrecy at the nation’s financial regulators.
The bipartisan FOIA Improvement Act, which passed the Senate but is stalled in the House, was intended to create a “presumption of openness” for all new federal open records requests. It had been considered noncontroversial and a good bet for passage -- until, say transparency advocates, a coalition of Wall Street lobbyists lined up to oppose the bill in the House. With only a few days left in the legislative session, any further delays of the bill will likely mean its death.
The suspicion among transparency groups is that the financial industry is working to fortify federal open-records exemptions for Wall Street which also exist in states and cities across the country. Those groups also fear the financial industry is aiming to prevent government regulators from erring on the side of transparency when faced with open-records requests for information about the financial industry.
“The negotiation process for this bill has been going on for six months now,” said Amy Bennett, the assistant director of OpenTheGovernment.org and the point person for a coalition of transparency groups working to pass the bill. “But the banks only started raising objections in the last week. Wall Street’s lobbyists are going to their allies on Capitol Hill and are asking them to delay it. But Wall Street just wants to kill the bill.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/wall-street-banking-lobbyists-block-transparency-bill-advocates-say-1750361
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