Friday, April 16, 2004

Groups Launch New FOI Coalition; Environmental Info Makes "10 Most Wanted" List   A coalition of media and advocacy groups calling themselves "Open The Government" launched a new anti-secrecy campaign April 15, 2004, at the National Press Club. Their list of “Ten Most Wanted Documents for 2004” included several kinds of environmental information.   Third on their list was the "Source Water Assessments" required under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Fifth on their list were the "Risk Management Plans" required for chemical plants under the 1990 Clean Air Act. Both are required by law to be published. Both have been suppressed since 9/11, ostensibly to guard against terrorism. Full story .... 10:37:54 AM

OMB Issues Revised Peer Review Rule for 30-Day Comment   The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released on April 15, 2004, a revised version of the Aug. 29, 2003, draft bulletin which would bring peer review of all federal agency science under the supervision of OMB and prevent publication before OMB was satisfied.   The OMB documents describing the revised bulletin asserted that it gave agencies more leeway to run their own peer review processes than did the original. The revised bulletin also seemed to loosen somewhat, from the original, the White House's grip over scientific information disseminated in emergency situations (e.g. whether air was safe to breathe in lower Manhattan after 9/11).   But many other parts of the original bulletin to which objections had commonly been raised by the 187 commenters on the original draft remain substantially unchanged. For example, it still authorizes agencies to let private firms manage their peer review -- which exempts the peer review from the openness requirements of the Federal Advisory Committees Act. It also leaves OMB and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with final say over whether peer review is adequate. Full story .... 12:11:38 AM