Legislation introduced in the Senate Wed. would restore some of t...
Legislation introduced in the Senate Wed. would restore some of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) changes instituted in the Homeland Security Act (HSA). Senate Judiciary Ranking Democrat Leahy (Vt.) introduced the bill he said would bring more balance…
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to FOIA law. FOIA is considered important for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection since industry has said it needs FOIA protections if it’s to communicate potential weaknesses to the govt. Leahy said his proposed Restoration of FOIA bill would: (1) Clarify FOIA exemption to be more consistent with established law. (2) Remove the restrictions on the govt.’s ability to act as it sees fit in response to the information it receives. (3) Preserve whistleblower protections by removing unnecessary criminal penalties. Leahy said the FOIA exemptions in HSA were “extraordinarily broad.” His bill would limit FOIA exemption to “relevant” documents submitted by the private sector. Leahy said industry was given a “free pass” by being allowed to label information as “critical infrastructure.” The bill has Sens. Levin (D-Mich.), Jeffords (Ind.-Vt.), Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Byrd (D-W.Va.) as co-sponsors. Leahy said it used the same bipartisan language as was developed last year by the Senate Govt. Affairs Committee. The bill also is supported by the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Privacy Times and the Radio/TV News Directors Assn. (RTNDA)