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ASNE gets in the open-government weeds with a House Committee

Many of the same organizations, including ASNE, sent a separate letter asking the committee to assert its jurisdiction over bills introduced in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in Milner v. Department of the Navy.

Openness was a hot issue in Washington last week, as evidenced by ASNE's demand for access to congressionally mandated reports! In a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, ASNE and other media organizations endorsed a bill soon to be introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., that would require agency reports statutorily required to be sent to Congress and releasable under FOIA to be posted online. Many of the same organizations, including ASNE, sent a separate letter asking the committee to assert its jurisdiction over bills introduced in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in Milner v. Department of the Navy. There is a fear in the open-government community that several overbroad statutes will be introduced in committees that aren't, shall we say, FOIA-inclined. The letter urges Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to use his committee's expertise to balance the public's right to know against the legitimate government interest in withholding truly harmful information.

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