Happy 58th Birthday, FOIA!
Good evening from Washington, where I'm seriously considering skipping the fireworks this year, given oppressive heat and humidity. Alex Howard here, with a "bonus" civic text about a law that's near and dear to my heart.
This week, I received a letter from Colleen Shogan, the 12th Archivist of the United States, with a certificate of appreciation for “outstanding service” as a member of the 2022-2024 term of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Federal Advisory Committee.
I plan to properly archive both, align with the coin I received from Alina Semo, Director of the Office of Government Information Services at US National Archives, perhaps in some sort of frame.
It feels both good and proper to share this memorialization of my “work to strengthen FOIA and democracy” on July 4th, 2024.
Today is the 58th birthday of the historic bill President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law while he was on vacation at his ranch in Texas, far away from the veils of secrecy in official Washington which its authors hoped to open up to the American people.
His signing statement traces his reluctance to support it and predicts the tensions that would follow between people suing for information under the law and the growing national security state that LBJ directed.
The FOIA’s fundamental purpose as a critical tool for transparency and public knowledge in American democracy has been proven out since its passage, strengthened by post-Watergate amendments in 1974 and again in 2007.
If implemented, I am certain that the recommendations of the FOIA Advisory Committee made this term and those made since 2014 would all improve public access to public information and the accountability for fraud, waste, and abuses of power that flows downstream from transparency in a healthy democracy.
Corruption has no party in a government of humans, which is why whistleblowers, public records laws, and freedom of information laws have proven to be bulwarks against tyranny and authoritarianism around the world, whatever their forms.
Tyrants everywhere all rightly view freedom of information laws that require records to be kept and publicly disclosed upon request as anathema, should a judge rule they were improperly withheld and must be published for public inspection.
Around the world, FOI laws enable watchdogs & journalists to reveal corruption, illegality, or demonstrated unfitness to govern to the publics, empowering people with the facts they need to be self-governing.
Public records laws can enable publics to know if officials withheld the truth, told people lies, or governed with best intent, with wisdom, discretion, and honor in the face of uncertainty and unknown risks.
The founding fathers of the United States recognized the nature and character of strongmen from ancient times and abhorred them in their present day, presciently warning us of the risks of partisanship and foreign entanglements.
I believe that our rights to access information, challenge unjust secrecy in courts of law, and to arm our fellow citizens with facts will be essential to defending democracies everywhere from the lies and corruption by the demagogues, despots, and would-be dictators of this young century.
Happy 58th birthday, FOIA!
