OpenTheGovernment.org's 2008 Secrecy Report Card, released Sept. 9, explored numerous indicators of government secrecy and found that continued expansion of secrecy across the federal government occurred in 2007. The report is the group's fifth such annual publication; all five reports have discovered continual poor performance by the federal government in permitting public access to government information.

A bill to reduce and standardize Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) designations moved quickly through the House in July, passing in both committee and on the House floor just a single week after it was introduced by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Davis (R-VA). This bill, along with a similar piece of legislation that focuses solely on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), now goes to the Senate where it may have a tougher time given the limited amount of legislative time left in this congressional session.

On June 11, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment held a hearing on a bill (H.R. 6193) introduced by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), chair of the subcommittee, to improve information sharing at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

After months of negotiations and stalled efforts, the House leadership reached common ground with the White House in passing a bill that reforms the legality of foreign surveillance and grants telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for assisting in warrantless wiretapping. On June 20, the House passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 6304) by a vote of 293 to 129. Despite opposition from key senators and the public interest community, at this point it appears likely to pass the Senate as well.