EFF has joined 42 other organizations, including the ACLU, the Knight Institute, and the National Security Archive calling for the new Biden administration to fulfill its promise to “bring transparency and truth back to government.”
Specifically, these organizations are asking the administration and the federal government at large to update policy and implementation regarding the collection, retention, and dissemination of public records as dictated in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Federal Records Act (FRA), and the Presidential Records Act (PRA).
Our call for increased transparency with the administration comes in the wake of many years of extreme secrecy and increasingly unreliable enforcement of record retention and freedom of information laws.
The letter request that the following actions be taken by the Biden administration:
- Emphasize to All Federal Employees the Obligation to Give Full Effect to Federal Transparency Laws.
- Direct Agencies to Adopt New FOIA Guidelines That Prioritize Transparency and the Public Interest.
- Direct DOJ to Fully Leverage its Central Role in Agencies’ FOIA Implementation.
- Issue New FOIA Guidance by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Update the National FOIA Portal.
- Assess, Preserve, and Disclose the Key Records of the Previous Administration.
- Champion Funding Increases for the Public Records Laws.
- Endorse Legislative Improvements for the Public Records Laws.
- Embrace Major Reforms of Classification and Declassification.
- Issue an Executive Order Reforming the Prepublication Review System.
You can read the full letter here:
