Sunlight Foundation

Two Transparency Bills Already On-Tap for New Congress

Congress has barely begun and there are already two bills up for debate this week that have been topics of discussion on the Sunlight blog. According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's Weekly Leader:

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2009 AND THE BALANCE OF THE WEEK

On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. On Thursday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. and recess until approximately 1:00 p.m. for the Joint Session of Congress to count the electoral ballots for the President and Vice President of the United States. On Friday, the House is expected to meet at 10:00 a.m.

Suspensions (2 bills):

H.R. ___ - Presidential Library Donation Reform Act (Rep. Towns – Oversight and Government Reform)

H.R. ___ - Presidential Records Act (Rep. Towns – Oversight and Government Reform)

H.R. ___ - Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (Rep. George Miller (CA) – Education and Labor) (Subject to a Rule)

H.R. ___ - Paycheck Fairness Act (Rep. DeLauro – Education and Labor) (Subject to a Rule)

The Presidential Library Reform Donation Reform Act and the Presidential Records Act Amendments both constitute important transparency reforms. The Presidential Library Donation Reform Act requires Presidential Libraries to disclose their contributors (this would be done electronically on the National Archives site). The Presidential Records Act Amendments would reverse a Bush Administration Executive Order that currently keeps presidential records hidden from the public indefinitely. Both of these bills passed the House in the previous session of Congress only to be stymied by the Minority in the Senate. The Presidential Library disclosure bill was blocked in committee after Sen. Ted Stevens voiced his opposition based on what he called an unfair burden it would place on President George W. Bush's current Presidential Library fundraising by mandating disclosure. The PRA Amendments were blocked by, not one, but two holds placed first by Sen. Jim Bunning and then Sen. Jeff Sessions. Hopefully, the Senate can work to pass these two important bills.

Shredding Party?

With the Bush Administration winding down, ProPublica asks a good question, "What documents can the White House put in the shredder?" The administration's fetish for secrecy is well known. It's a logical assumption that the Bush/Cheney team would like to make some documents disappear.

ProPublica looked at the laws governing what documents they are required to save, starting with the Presidential Records Act. Congress passed it in 1978 as a result of Watergate and the struggle over Nixon's papers and records. The law requires all records be preserved that documents the president and the vice's "activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties." The law does not require that personal and political records, or "superfluous" documents be saved. Outgoing administrations are to turn over presidential and vice presidential records to the National Archives, which catalogs them and is to make them available to the public after 12 years.

In 2001, however, the Bush issued an executive order, the infamous No. 13233, requiring current and former presidents and vice presidents to authorize the release of their papers. With the stroke of a pen, he gave himself and the other presidents, vice presidents, and even their heirs the ability to keep documents secret. Earlier this fall, Slate listed this executive order as number one of the 10 orders the new president should toss out. Obama has promised (pdf) to "nullify the Bush order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records."

Let's hope that historians, journalists and other sleuths will be able to thwart the Bush/Cheney veil of secrecy when they get access their papers in a dozen years or so.

Government Secrets

Back in September, I blogged about a hold being put on a bill that would undo the damage done when President Bush issued an Executive Order allowing presidential records to remain secret indefinitely. The bill, Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, passed the House by a vote of 333 to 93. A bipartisan group of Senators cosponsored the bill which Senator Lieberman swiftly ushered through The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in June of 2007. Its momentum stalled when a Senator put a secret hold on the bill so it could not be voted on by Unanimous Consent in the Senate.

Read more

Presidential Records In the Dark

It's interesting to watch what happens in Congress when "because that's the way we've always done it" no longer becomes an option. For years, Senators have put secret holds on bills they wanted to block. These anonymous objections have been used by both parties to bring to a screeching halt legislation that has the support of a majority of the Members. Sunlight has long-championed putting that tired tradition to rest. A provision we lobbied for in the recently-enacted Honest Leadership and Open Government Act does that, more or less, by requiring Senators to come clean about their holds after five days. Ironically, we've seen the results of this provision on two important transparency related measures.

Paul Blumenthal blogged about Senator Ensign's hold on S. 223, the Senate Campaign Finance Disclosure Parity Act, earlier in the week. We have reason to wonder whether the hold was Ensign's doing all along. Similarly, Senator Jim Bunning now has an objection to moving forward with HR 1255, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007. The bill would overturn an outrageous Executive Order that would keep presidential records hidden from public view indefinitely.


Read more