12. (New Classification Order Suppressing and journalists under FOI Act. Reversed 18 years 13. (Exempt Secret Service from FOI) Currently 14. (Keep secret Iranian govt. officials who may 15. (Exempt CIA from FOI) Supports a total 16. (New FOI Guidelines Encourage Information This reverses Carter Administration guidelines Date: 17. (New FOI Guidelines Encouraging Higher Fees 18. (Administration Supports FOI Act Amendment 19. (Administration Supports FOI Act Amendment to 8 20. (Administration Supports FOI Act Amendment to Suppress Law Enforcement Information) The Administation supported a bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, which under the FOI Act would suppress all law enforcement information relating to "organized crime," "counter-intelligence" and "terrorism." This could include information that the goverment committed a crime. Note that infiltration of domestic political groups under Nixon was called "counter-intelligence" and campaign against actress Jean Seaberg was done under rubric of "terrorism" investigation. Date: 10/81 21. (Sealing of All Information on Military Aircraft Accidents Resulting From the Air Safety Investigation) Department of Defense attempts to include a provision in the MX defense appropriations bill that would seal all information from the press and public resulting from the air safety investigation conducted by the military of aircraft accidents. Date: 09/83 22. (Multi-million Dollar Foundation Exempted from FOI Act) President Reagan signed legislation creating the National Endowment for Democracy, a foundation to disburse $31.3 million abroad to promote democracy. While the organization was created by Congress and received its initial funding through the U.S. Information Agency, it is totally exempt from public access under FOIA. Date: 11/83 23. (Aircraft Safety Investigation Reports Are Secret) In case appealed by the Solicitor General, the Supreme Court ruled that confidential witness statements given as part of military aircraft safety investigation reports may be kept secret. (U.S. v. Weber Aircraft Co.) Date: 03/84 24. (Privacy Act Can Be Used As Bar to FOI Act) Justice Department appeals case to Supreme Court urging that Privacy Act can be used to bar access to FOI Act requests. (Provenzano v. DOJ). 03/84 Date: SEC 25. (SEC to Seek New FOI Act Exemption) announces its intention to urge passage of legislation to totally exempt its investigatory records from FOI Act. Date: 03/84 26. (Uphold Pre-publication Agreements for CIA Agents) Supported position (taken by Carter Adminisration) that CIA agents can be forced to submit all writings (including works of fiction) to Agency under a contract signed at the time of employment. Supreme Court agreed, citing the sensitive nature of CIA. Date: 05/81 Told 27. (Cancels Passports of U.S. Critics) Supreme Court that government could unilaterally cancel passports of American citizens who went abroad and then endangered national security by publishing (Philip Agee is an example). Supreme Court agreed and said no danger to national security needs to be shown. Date: 06/81 28. (CBS Reporter Threatened with Espionage Act Because of Iranian books) FBI seized books of CBS News stringer William Worthy. The books, bought in Iran, contained secret documents obtained when militant Iranians took over U.S. embassy in 1979. The books had been published in Europe and were on sale to the public in Teheran. The FBI threatened Worthy with prosecution, but the charges were finally dropped and the government paid Worthy $16,000. Date: 08/81 29. (Dissemination in U.S. of Cuban Books and Newspapers Delayed) Under laws on trading with the enemy, government delayed for months delivery of books and newspapers from Cuba to U.S. citizens. Date: 08/81 30. (CIA Officials Seek Prior Review of University Research) CIA Deputy Director, Bobby Inman told a group of scientists that they should voluntarily submit to the agency all proposals for privately funded university research. He cited danger to national security. Date: 01/82 6 31. (Agent Identities Bill) Supported the most punitive version of "Agent Identities Bill," which makes it a crime to name an intelligence agent even if the agent is breaking federal law or regulations. Not necessary to show that newspaper published information with intent to harm U.S. or that information posed any danger to national security. Are some defenses but Date: 06/82 they are weak and mainly cosmetic. 32. (Reporters Required to Sign Secrecy Pledge) Defense Department asked reporters to sign a secrecy pledge before receiving a briefing on Soviet Union's military build-up. Date: 12/82 33. (Canadian Films Registration) Required film distributed by film board of Canada to carry notice of "political propaganda" when shown in this country. Films were on pollution and nuclear disarmament. Done under Foreign Agents which has exemption for info Registration Act, not primarily benefiting foreign government. Justice also invoked Act to require that film board provide names of all American groups who seek to obtain film. Date: 02/83 34. (Now Wants Pre-publication Agreement Extended to All Persons Having Access to Classified Info) Announced that all government employees with access to classified information, including those in Depts. of Defense, State, Justice, Treasury, etc., must sign pre-publication agreements. After much adverse publicity, White House agreed to suspend program until end of 1984. Date: 03/83 35. (Establishes Royalty Fees for Use of Government Information) Supported a bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, which would, for the first time, impose fees for the "commercial" value of government info obtained under the FOI Act. Act said "technological information," but David Gergen, then Director of White House Office of Communications, used as one example "training manuals" of the Dept. of Defense. Apparently, this is the first step in establishing government copyright. Date: 10/81 36. (Excludes American News Media from Covering U.S. Invasion of Grenada) During the invasion of Grenada, the Administration: a. Excluded American reporters from covering b. Brought in their own Dept. of Defense news c. Detained three American reporters who were 37. (Canadian Journalist Ordered to Leave U.S.) U.S. ordered Canadian journalist, Robert Rutka, covering the U.S. for a Cuban press agency to He was charged by Treasury leave the country. Dept. with violating Foreign Assets Control laws. Date: 01/84 38. (Senior USIA Officials Compiled Secret Blacklist of Overseas Speakers Program) Senior officials of the United States Information Agency secretly screened American politicians, scholars and journalists for a USIA overseas speakers program and rejected at least 38 of them because of political and idealogical views incompatible with the Regean Administration's. 10 40-194 0 85 11 Mr. ENGLISH. Mr. Murphy, would you agree with that assessment, as far as the linkage? Mr. MURPHY. I would. I think it has happened all too frequently and set a tone for the entire administration that has been serious and has shown they have not worked to improve the flow of information out of this Government to the people. I think this is serious and anything that encourages a further erosion contributes to a lessening of the freedom of the press, and contributes to a feeling that bureaucrats are going to make the decisions in this society rather than individuals who are citizens and who vote and who are charged with the ultimate decisions about the country. Mr. ENGLISH. Thank you very much. I appreciate the testimony from both of you. Thank you. I think we will recess until 1:30, and then we will hear our final panel and our last witness. [Whereupon, at 12:35 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 1:30 p.m., the same day.] AFTERNOON SESSION Mr. ENGLISH. The hearing will come to order. This afternoon, we have a panel with Lee Norrgard, chief investigator for the Better Government Association; Florence Graves, vice president for communications and editor of Common Cause magazine, who is representing Common Cause, and is accompanied by Michal Freedman, associate director for issue development. I want to welcome each of you here today. Thank you for coming. Ms. Graves, you may start off. STATEMENT OF FLORENCE GRAVES, VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLICATIONS, AND EDITOR, COMMON CAUSE MAGAZINE, REPRESENTING COMMON CAUSE Ms. GRAVES. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. As you said, I am vice president for publications of Common Cause, and editor-in-chief of Common Cause magazine, a 4-year-old bimonthly publication that has a nationwide circulation of more than 260,000; and also Michal Freedman is here today. She has completed a study on fee waivers. The Freedom of Information Act has been one of our organization's most important tools. In addition to educating our readers about the way Government works, Common Cause magazine was founded to expose Government waste and inefficiency and to help hold Government officials accountable for their actions. I can honestly say that without the Freedom of Information Act, we would have been unable to report and write a number of investigative articles which have led to reforms and have improved the accountability and performance of Government agencies and officials. Moreover, at least one of our stories has led to a reform which has the potential to save taxpayers millions of dollars a year. Without the Freedom of Information Act, it is unlikely that citizens and their elected officials would have learned about a once common practice that allowed defense contractors to bill the Pentagon for the costs of their lobbying campaigns. In a 1981 investigation, Common Cause magazine painted a picture of the millions of dollars in lobbying expenses which defense contractors had been routinely charging to their Government contracts. The story was based on audits of the Washington offices of 10 major defense contractors, which had been conducted after revelations in 1975 that some defense contractors had entertained military and congressional personnel with parties, goose hunts, rides on corporate jets and yachts, and football tickets. The Defense Department promised Congress that it would audit the Washington offices of the 10 defense contractors to see if the costs of any of this lavish entertainment had been charged to taxpayers. After reading about the proposed audits in the Congressional Record, Common Cause filed a request for copies under the Freedom of Information Act. The audits revealed that indeed, some defense contractors had charged some costs of entertainment. Raytheon, for example, had claimed the cost of lodging, meals and guides for goose hunts in the Maryland area for employees and guests. All told, the audits showed that these 10 defense contractors had charged more than 4.5 million dollars' worth of entertainment costs to taxpayers. During the audit negotiations, the contractors agreed to delete about $2 million of these costs. Pentagon rules already stated that contractors could not legally charge entertainment costs, but the rules said nothing specifically about lobbying costs, and these audits revealed that these 10 contractors were routinely charging lobbying expenses, which came to more than $2 million during 1974 and 1975 alone. There are hundreds of defense contractors, of course, many of them with sizable Washington offices, whose main purpose is to lobby, so many more million of dollars were at stake. The audits and other records we obtained under the FOIA also showed that several times over a number of years some Pentagon auditors had fought for a rule to prohibit contractors from charging their lobbying expenses, but to no avail. After publication of our investigation, which received widespread press attention, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger asked Pentagon policymakers to clamp down on this practice. I believe the FOIA was instrumental in exposing the practice, and that in the absence of the FOIA, Pentagon auditors would probably still be fighting the bureaucracy on this issue, and taxpayers would still be subsidizing contractor lobbying expenses. This investigation led to another. In the March-April 1984 issue of Common Cause magazine, we revealed that some contractors were also charging millions of dollars worth of public relations expenses to Government contracts. Again, these documents showed that the Defense Contract Audit Agency had tried a number of times to work within the system to encourage restrictions on such payments. Again, their efforts had been unsuccessful. |