FERC's Final CEII Rule
Mar 10, 2003 by Sean Moulton
On March 3, 2003, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) published in the Federal Register its final rule restricting access to critical energy infrastructure information (CEII) and establishing new procedures outside of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for requesting access. FERC began this process in response to the terrorist acts committed on September 11, 2001, and published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on September 13, 2002, to obtain public comments.
read in fullOMB Watch Submits Comments on FERC's Proposed Rulemaking
Nov 15, 2002 by Sean Moulton
OMB Watch recently submitted public comments to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on its recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The comments raised strong objections to the information restriction measures being proposed by FERC and urged the agency to transfer this issue to Congress where it would be more appropriate to address this issue. The full comments submitted to FERC are below or can be downloaded as a pdf file here.
read in fullComments Due this Week on FERC Rule Limiting Public Access
Nov 12, 2002 by Guest Blogger
Public comments on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's proposal to limit public access to "critical energy infrastructure information" are due this Thursday, Nov. 14.
read in fullComment Deadline Extended on FERC Rule Limiting Public Access
Oct 15, 2002 by Guest Blogger
On October 9, 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it was granting a 30-day extension for public comments on the Commission's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued September 5, 2002, and published in the Federal Register on September 13, 2002 in Docket Nos. RM02-4-000 and PL02-1-000.
read in fullFOIA Constancy in Senate Homeland Security
Sep 30, 2002 by Sean Moulton
The latest homeland security bill in the Senate, sponsored by Sens. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Zell Miller (D-GA), contains information provisions that would exempt documents voluntarily provided to the new Department of Homeland Security from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The language is exactly the same as the Leahy-Bennett-Levin amendment that resolved this issue in Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s (D-CT) bill on homeland security. Lieberman’s bill failed to pass a cloture vote after Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) filibustered the bill.
read in fullFERC Rulemaking to Restrict Information Access
Sep 16, 2002 by Guest Blogger
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on September 5, 2002 announced plans to aggressively restrict public access to government information it deems sensitive. Shortly after the September 11 attacks FERC limited access to huge amounts of information that it controls and released an initial policy statement addressing this issue in October 2001. Then on January 16, 2002, FERC announced a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) (published in the Federal Register on January 23, 2002) seeking public input on possible regulatory changes that would allow the agency to restrict unfettered general public access to what it termed Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII).
read in fullSensitive but Unclassified
Sep 3, 2002 by Guest Blogger
Last week officials from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requested a meeting with various public interest groups concerned with public access to government information. The purpose was to discuss OMB’s upcoming efforts to define the category of "sensitive but unclassified" for government information. This vague term generated a great deal of confusion and concern among information advocates when addressed in a memo prepared at the request of Andrew Card, White House Chief of Staff.
read in fullSenate Finds Compromise on Information in Homeland Security
Aug 5, 2002 by Guest Blogger
Shortly after the House passed a Homeland Security Act that contained broad restrictive information provisions, the Senators on the Government Affairs Committee reached a compromise on narrower language. The final House provisions included a broad new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption, with extremely vague definitions, for information voluntarily submitted to the new Department, granted corporations civil immunity, preempted all state and local open records laws, and made it a crime for any federal employee to release such information to the public.
read in fullLegislative Update on Homeland Security Act
Aug 1, 2002 by Guest Blogger
As Congress wrestles to move along legislation to establish a Department of Homeland Security, the House and the Senate are taking significantly different approaches to information provisions for the new Department.
read in fullDepartment of Homeland Secrecy
Jul 22, 2002 by Guest Blogger
The secrecy proposal began in President Bush’s proposal for the creation of a new Homeland Security Department as a single vague and overly broad sentence describing a new FOIA exemption for information concerning “infrastructure” and “vulnerabilities” that was “voluntarily submitted.” Numerous information provisions which go much further have now been proposed to replace this section of Homeland Security Act.
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