The week of March 17 marks the third annual national Sunshine Week, a nonpartisan campaign to promote openness in government and access to public records.

During the week of Feb. 11, the White House and Democrats in Congress exchanged blows over whether and how to extend the surveillance powers of the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA). The Senate's approach, the FISA Amendments Act (S. 2248), included a provision granting immunity for telecommunications companies that helped the government monitor citizens through its warrantless wiretapping program. The House leadership, opposed to immunity for telecommunications companies, refused to consider the bill. Instead, House leaders wanted to pass a three-week extension of PAA powers to give themselves time to resolve differences with the Senate, but House Republicans blocked the move. As a result, the PAA expired at midnight Eastern time on Feb. 16. Despite the expiration, the government still has numerous surveillance tools available as debate continues.

The Senate is continuing its debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). On Jan. 31, President Bush signed a 15-day extension of the Protect America Act (PAA) to allow the Senate to further debate and vote on a modified extension of PAA. A provision providing immunity to telecommunications companies remains a contentious issue.

The Department of Defense (DoD) is finalizing policies to streamline categories used to restrict technically unclassified documents. The new policy to eliminate the multiple agency-specific "Sensitive But Unclassified" (SBU) procedures and replace them with a common set of "Controlled Unclassified Information" (CUI) standards is currently under presidential review.