Transparency has recently become a hot topic nationally. Running against the trend toward greater transparency, a bill was proposed to amend the transparency laws in Delaware. This bill would have further restricted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and it received considerable public opposition. The bill passed out of the Senate Committee last year but has not been heard since.
Delaware’s FOIA law already prohibits disclosing certain information. And this bill would have granted public bodies the ability to deny requests they deem “unreasonably broad, unduly burdensome, intended to disrupt the essential functions of a public body, or … abusive.”
The Better Government Association and the National Freedom of Information Coalition conducted an analysis of the FOIA policies in all 50 states.
They calculated that 38 out of the 50 states got an overall grade of F, including Delaware.
To build its ratings, the association created a ‘gold standard’ against which the laws of each state could be objectively and accurately measured.
Clearly, in both Delaware and many other states, the laws are already very restrictive, and the last thing we need is to make them more so.
Instead, one good step to increase the accessibility of state FOIA laws would be to add a sunshine committee with oversight over FOIA decisions.
If this lack of transparency exists at the state level, how much more is it a concern at the national level? So much of what occurs in our federal government is kept from us, lied about and misrepresented.
Our government is meant to work for the people. “We the People” are the employers of our legislators. It is not their place to hide their activities from our valid inquiries. They should be as open as possible regarding the government’s activities. Their desire to limit our knowledge is suspect in and of itself.
Join us in reining in the lack of transparency of our federal government by signing the Convention of States petition. We are using Article V of the United States Constitution to propose amendments that would provide term limits, restrain spending, and rein in the power and jurisdiction of the federal government.
We the People hire our government to work for us. They cannot be allowed to hide information from us.
