President Clinton and FoI Laws p.

By: Mark Fitzgerald After 12 years of steadily closing government, the 'access community' is hopeful but wary about the new administration
FOR THE SO-CALLED ""access community"" interested in effective freedom of information laws, the Clinton administration should be a welcome relief after 12 years of steadily closing government.
After all, one of the themes of Bill Clinton's campaign was opening public access to government.
Then, too, his young staff is peppered with computer bulletin board enthusiasts and former congressional aides who worked for stronger FoI laws.
Still, at the recent FoI Summit sponsored by the Freedom Forum, journalists, librarians and other open-access advocates tempered their high hopes for Clinton with a dread that his presidency may turn out like so many others.
""I think history shows presidents enter the White House as avowed champions of FoI, but few leave with the same enthusiasm,"" said Richard M. Schmidt Jr., general counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
Others complain that Clinton is not getting off to an especially enthusiastic start.
These FoI advocates are particularly upset by the secrecy that has characterized the Health Care Task Force headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
""To me that was a big faux pas. It was the first visible sign we have had, the first action they have taken, and I don't think it bodes well,"" said Barbara Fought, of the Michigan Freedom of Information Committee.
Health Care Task Force deliberations are ""not troop movements during a war, and it's a vital issue for all of us,"" Fought added.
In his own talk at the FoI Summit in Nashville, Tenn., Clinton senior aide John D. Podesta touched on the complaints about the task force ? and the closed-office access in the White House pressroom ? with mostly lighthearted remarks.
The task force, he said, is not a government agency, and the pressroom issue, he implied, is too much of an inside-the-Beltway issue to be discussed seriously.
However, Podesta, a former aide to the vigorously pro-FoI U.S. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), said, ""We're quietly at work at a broad range of [FoI] efforts.""
He outlined this agenda of FoI changes the Clinton White House wants to achieve within its first year:
?Update the federal FoIA to deal with electronic records.
?Pass so-called ""Windows,"" or ""Gateway,"" legislation to widen public access to government electronic information on an on-line basis.
?Open the White House E-mail electronic mail system to respond more rapidly to communications from the public.
?Appoint a national archivist ""more committed to preserving American history than preserving their own job.""
Podesta argued that the Clinton administration has already put its own stamp on open access.
""I actually ask why things are classified at the NSC [National Security Council],"" Podesta said.
""I think we've probably created a new classification standard,"" he added. ""One thing I've noticed is, if you overclassify at the front-end, you create an administrative nightmare at the declassification level.""
As for the regulatory process ? which FoI advocates say became increasingly secretive under Reagan and Bush ? Podesta said, ""I think I can assure you it will be a more open process.""
Also, by abolishing the Office of Competitiveness, Clinton has met at least one of the demands of FoI advocates who believe the various reforms aimed at cutting governmental ""red tape"" have had the effect of closing the regulation-making process to public scrutiny.
""The Paperwork Reduction Act stands as one of the biggest mistakes of the Jimmy Carter administration,"" said Theresa Amato of the Ralph Nader group's Public Citizen and FoI Clearinghouse.
Reagan expanded upon the act with an executive order creating an Office of Intergovernmental Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
""The agency rule-making process is open until it gets to the most important point?where it comes out finally,"" Amato said. ""Rules go into OIRA and enter a Twilight Zone.
""OIRA is where the policy wonks hung out and they could do whatever they wanted with a proposed regulation . . . . And OIRA had a 'leave no fingerprints' modus operandi.""
However, other FoI advocates warned that even eliminating various bureaucratic black holes such as OIRA will not guarantee an open government.
""Unfortunately, the sad fact is that the words in the FoIA do not amount to a thimble of warm spit in determining the day-to-day practices of freedom of information,"" declared Quinlan Shea, FoIA chief under Carter.
Bureaucrats ""classify whatever they want to and they declassify ? on those rare occasions ? whenever they feel like it,"" he said.
The Reagan and Bush administrations ? which Shea characterized as a time when ""secrecy was king and hypocrisy ruled"" ? were successful in closing access precisely because they were able to influence these deeply entrenched bureaucrats, Shea said.
That will be the Clinton White House's real battleground, Shea argued.
""Bureaucrats are ready to fight any attempt to roll back what they had under Reagan and Bush,"" he said.
""Nobody ever got a medal for declassifying a document, but many people got in trouble for not classifying a document or declassifying a document that his boss decided should be [secret],"" Shea said.
Government cutbacks have also had the effect of vitiating the FoIA, Shea said.
""The FBI has fewer people processing FoIA requests than they had on my watch, and there are more requests to process,"" he said.nE&P
? Reuters photo
? FoI advocates are particularly upset by the secrecy that has characterized the Health Care Task Force headed by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
? ""I think history shows presidents enter the White House as avowed champions of FoI, but few leave with the same enthusiasm,"" said Richard M. Schmidt Jr., general counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors.