IP: Public Right to Know and EPA's Worst Case Scenarios

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Please note for record I am on the Board of Trustees for EFF and Board of Advisors for CDT


To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: Ari Schwartz <ari () cdt org>

There is a Commerce Committee hearing on this issue at 10:30 tomorrow
entitled "Internet Posting of Worst-Case Scenarios: A Roadmap for
Terrorists."  Environmentalists have been working on the issue, but it has
only recently been suggested that limits on FOIA will be proposed causing
concern amongst civil liberties, academic, journalist and public interest
organizations.

Ari

-----

February 9, 1999

The Honorable Thomas Bliley
Chairman House Committee on Commerce
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Bliley,

As organizations committed to preserving the public's right to know, access
to government information, and the free flow of information, we are writing
to express our concern and opposition to proposals to limit public access
to information concerning accidents at chemical plants (EPA's unclassified
Worst Case Scenarios data).   It is our understanding that you are
considering the creation of a new exemption to the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA), or amending the Clean Air Act to exempt this information from
the provisions of FOIA, and have discouraged the EPA from using the
Internet to provide public access to this publicly available data.

FOIA was designed to allow the public to inquire about and monitor
government activities.  Since its passage, individuals, journalists,
academics, community leaders have used FOIA to research, study, and utilize
public information created or collected by the government.  FOIA gave
government the affirmative responsibility to make information widely
available to the public.

Three years ago, Senator Patrick Leahy's amendments to FOIA, EFOIA,
expanded the rights of individuals, assuring public access to information
in all media, and encouraged the use of the Internet for the dissemination
of government information.  EFOIA ensured that the public's interest in
access to information would benefit from advances in technology and that
information could not be withheld simply because it was in electronic form.

The Clean Air Act, like FOIA, seeks to empower citizens by providing
information critical for communities to assess the safety of companies
operating in their midst by planning and comparing information about their
communities in order to make informed decisions about their lives.  The
dissemination of information is critical to the success of the Clean Air
Act, giving individuals the ability to monitor the toxins in their
community.

The Internet and other digital media have given individuals an
unprecedented ability to access information and utilize their right to know
with ease and efficiency.  Congress recognized, in passing EFOIA, that
technology has great power to "foster democracy by ensuring public access
to agency information." The amendments expanded the information actually -
not just legally - available by making frequently requested records more
readily available "through computer telecommunications." Exempting specific
information from the FOIA, or any effort to set medium-based limits on the
release of government information to the public, has an impact on the
public's right to access information.

We urge you not to put forward such proposals or, at the very least, to
help ensure that there is a full hearing with input from all of the
affected communities including public interest groups, journalists and
other frequent FOIA requesters.



Sincerely,

American Association of Law Libraries

American Civil Liberties Union

Association of Newspaper Editors

Center for Democracy and Technology

Electronic Frontier Foundation

OMB Watch



Cc:  Chairman Steve Horn, House Subcommittee on Government Management,
Information and Technology

Representative Robert Goodlatte, Internet Caucus Co-Chair
Representative Rick Boucher, Internet Caucus Co-Chair
Senator Conrad Burns, Internet Caucus Co-Chair
Senator Patrick Leahy, Internet Caucus Co-Chair

Representative W.J. "Billy" Tauzin
Representative Michael G. Oxley
Representative Michael Bilirakis
Representative Joe Barton
Representative Fred Upton
Representative Cliff Stearns
Representative Paul E. Gillmor
Representative James C. Greenwood
Representative Christopher Cox
Representative Nathan Deal
Representative Steve Largent
Representative Richard Burr
Representative Brian P. Bilbray
Representative Ed Whitfield
Representative Greg Ganske
Representative Charlie Norwood
Representative Tom Coburn
Representative Rick Lazio
Representative Barbara Cubin
Representative James E. Rogan
Representative John Skimkus
Representative Heather Wilson
Representative John B. Shadegg
Representative Charles W. "Chip" Pickering
Representative Vito Fossella
Representative Roy Blunt
Representative Ed Bryant
Representative Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
Representative John D. Dingell
Representative Henry A. Waxman
Representative Edward J. Markey
Representative Ralph M. Hall
Representative Edolphus Towns
Representative Frank Pallone, Jr.
Representative Sherrod Brown
Representative Bart Gordon
Representative Peter Deutsch
Representative Bobby L. Rush
Representative Anna G. Eshoo
Representative Ron Klink
Representative Bart Stupak
Representative Eliot L. Engel
Representative Thomas C. Sawyer
Representative Albert R. Wynn
Representative Gene Green
Representative Karen McCarthy
Representative Ted Strickland
Representative Diana DeGette
Representative Thomas M. Barrett
Representative Bill Luther
Representative Lois Capps