Over the years many have compared politics and policy formation through our democratic process to a dance between competing viewpoints. Unfortunately for public access to government information, the dance in 2005 closely resembled an old-fashioned bunny hop, involving two steps back for every one step forward. One hop forward.

• DHS Drops Non-Disclosure Agreements: In January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under pressure from congressional offices, federal employee unions and the media, stopped requiring nondisclosure agreements and voided all previously signed agreement for "Sensitive But Unclassified" (SBU) information. DHS officials had been requiring that all agency employees sign a strict non-disclosure agreement for unclassified information that was deemed "sensitive" and had even begun asking congressional aides to sign these agreements. Instead, the new directive stresses education and awareness to foster the appropriate level of protection for SBU information.

One hop back.

• Nuclear Secrets: In February, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposed expanding the amount of information that can be withheld from the public as Safeguards Information (SGI). The new regulations broaden the already expansive SGI regulations, allowing the NRC to withhold any information about emergency planning procedures, safety analyses, or defense capabilities.

A hop back forward.

• Sunshine Week Goes National: In March, newspapers, TV, and radio helped raise public awareness of pervasive government secrecy and promoted open government as part of the first-ever national Sunshine Week. Over 1,000 stories ran in newspapers across this country, including a week-long series of editorials and op-eds on how citizens use open records laws to make their communities safer. A also poll found that seven in 10 Americans were concerned about excessive government secrecy.

One hop back.

• Court Dismisses Energy Taskforce Case: A federal appeals court judge dismissed a lawsuit seeking to uncover secret documents from Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force on May 10. The judge ruled the task force was not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The plaintiffs, Sierra Club and Judicial Watch, maintained that energy industry executives participated in the task force that led to the development of the administration's energy policies. Under FACA, any advisory body consisting of individuals outside the government must follow specific guidelines: the committee must issue a charter for approval, include diverse and representative members, and hold open meetings that the public is notified about in advance. The ruling ended the long legal battle to disclose the energy task force records.

One hop forward.

• FOIA Focus in Congress: In 2005 Congress focused a great deal of attention on improving implementation of the country's most fundamental public access law--the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced several pieces of bipartisan legislation to speed up the FOIA process, clarify that FOIA exemptions in new laws must be explicit, and establish provisions such as an interagency panel to improve FOIA implementation across government. Both the Senate in March and the House in May held their first hearings on FOIA in years.

Two hops back.

• White House Rewrites Global Warming: In June a whistleblower revealed that a former oil industry lobbyist, Philip Cooney of White House's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), changed language in government climate change reports to undermine scientific findings on climate change and present it as less problematic. The incident highlights the White House's increasing interference with agency reports and analysis throughout 2005. Shortly after the issue came to light, Cooney resigned from CEQ and took a job with Exxon.
• First Known Piece of CII: In June, a request from a New Jersey resident to access to a township's electronic map of land parcels brought to light the first public example of "Critical Infrastructure Information" (CII). The Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority denied the resident's request for information from the land parcels database, which is used for property taxes, because the data had been accepted by DHS under the CII program. While the municipal utility refused to grant the resident free access to the database, they publicly offered paper copies of the maps for $5 a piece, leading some to speculate that the CII program is being misused to ensure revenue for government collected information.

One hop in place.

• Data Quality Act Hearing: The Government Reform Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs held the first congressional hearing on the Data Quality Act (DQA) on July 20. The hearing reviewed implementation of the DQA at three federal agencies and heard from interested stakeholders, including industry associations that have filed data quality challenges and public interest groups seeking the policy's repeal. Agencies appeared supportive of the DQA, but did acknowledge that DQA efforts have diverted agency resources and that requests have grown difficult to respond to in a timely manner. At the conclusion of the hearing, Chairman Candice Miller (R-MI) appeared supportive of broadening the DQA to include judicial review, a provision that industry has long wanted.

A hop back.

• The NEPA Lockout: In 2005, House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) established a congressional task force to review and make recommendations on how to "improve" the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). As the task force held hearings around the country, however, environmentalists and ordinary citizens found it difficult to participate. The task force held four "public" hearings during the summer, soliciting input primarily from industry interests that view NEPA's environmental and health requirements as burdensome. Many in the public interest and environmental communities contend that, after nearly 200 NEPA supporters swamped the first task force hearing in Spokane, Washington, Pombo intentionally withheld details on hearing locations and times until the last minute to silence NEPA supporters.

One hop forward.

• Cities Take On Chemical Security: After several chemical accidents at U.S. facilities and en route to or from U.S. facilities in 2005, cities across the nation began compensating for the federal government's inability to establish chemical security by enacting their own local laws. The District of Colombia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Baltimore all pursued local legislation to mitigate the risks of shipping hazardous materials through their heavily populated centers. The District of Columbia became the first U.S. city to pass legislation banning hazardous shipments passing through its city limits destined for other locales in 2004.

One hop back.

• Courts Halt D.C. Chemical Security Law: Unfortunately, after a rail company and the Department of Justice challenged the D.C. law, the courts stayed implementation of the ordinance. Despite the court decision, several cities continue to move forward with their own chemical security legislation. With four full years having passed since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the federal government has still taken no action to protect urban centers from threats posed by hazardous material shipments.

One nomination hop back.

• Supreme Secrecy: In September 2005, the Senate held a hearing on Judge John Roberts' nomination to replace William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Despite full disclosure being of the utmost importance to the Senate's difficult task, the White House continually fought against releasing documents from Roberts' time as White House associate counsel during the Reagan administration. Not only were these critical documents to ascertaining the appointee's ability and qualifications withheld initially, when they were eventually released from the Ronald Reagan library, they revealed that Roberts supported government secrecy and strenuously avoided any implication that the White House had an obligation to provide information to anyone, including Congress.

Two big environmental hops back.

• Hurricane Katrina: Both immediately following Hurricane Katrina and as long-term recovery moves forward, the EPA and other agencies responsible to protecting public health have failed to fully inform citizens in a timely manner of the potential dangers from releases of toxic and hazardous materials that had been stored in and around New Orleans. The insufficiency of EPA's testing for environmental hazards, the absence of informative health warnings for recovery workers and returning residents, and its failure to provide protective equipment all clearly point to the agency's inability to accomplish its goal of protecting public health and the environment. As environmental and health groups have continued to press for more information on the agency's testing results, EPA continues to withhold much of this information.
• Right to Know Less: In September 2005 EPA announced plans to significantly roll back reporting of toxic pollution under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program. The TRI program has been the nation's premier tool for notifying the public about releases of toxic chemicals for almost 20 years. The TRI annually provides communities with details about toxic chemicals released into the surrounding air, land, and water. Despite the program's widely hailed success, however, EPA has proposed several changes to reduce the amount of paperwork companies must file, each of which would dramatically cut information available to the public on toxic pollution. A broad coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, first responders, state officials, community groups, health professionals, and others have begun an extensive campaign to oppose the changes.

A hop forward with a hop back.

• State Biomonitoring Arrives, Almost: After three years of work to pass a biomoniting bill in the California legislature, this year lawmakers narrowly approved a bill. The state bill represents the next generation in the public's right to know about environmental impacts. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, vetoed the bill on Oct. 7. The Healthy Californian's Biomonitoring Program (SB 600) would have established America's first state-wide program to assess levels of human chemical exposure.

Two hops back.

• USA PATRIOT Act, Still: Several powers granted to government agencies to secretly search, seize and collect information on groups and citizens under the USA PATRIOT Act received a great deal of congressional attention in 2005. Many of the most controversial provision were set to expire at the end of the year, including a section that allowed law enforcement agencies to collect records from libraries and bookstores. Lawmakers in the House and Senate negotiated a compromise that extends the provisions four years with only modest modifications of the law's far-reaching powers and sweeping secrecy.
• Ultra-Secret Agency: In November, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced legislation that would create the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) to research and develop strategies to combat bioterrorism and natural diseases. The bill would, for the first time ever, completely exempt the new agency from all open government laws. Burr has already begun negotiations with open government advocates to correct the legislation and ensure that the agency will have some level of public accountability and transparency. The introduction of a bill with such overarching and broad secrecy, however, demonstrates just how far open government advocates still must go to instill the principles of openness and accountability into our government and its leadership.