Support for the Transparency and Openness in Government Act

We, the undersigned, hereby declare our support for the Transparency and Openness in Government Act.



In its ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." We declare that reformation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a way to help prevent this pattern of deception in government. 



We believe that this Act is not a partisan issue. The Freedom of Information Act has been reformed under the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. We believe that this Act will give Americans even greater ability to hold the government accountable for its actions.



The Freedom of Information Act has been effective in the past. FOIA helped the New York Times uncover over 10,000 pages of documents that described a Pentagon program to influence news coverage of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through targeting retired officers working as "military analysts." However, this process took nearly two years. We believe that the passage of the Transparency and Openness in Government Act, these types of programs can be uncovered even more quickly.



For these reasons, we declare our support of the Transparency and Openness in Government Act. We call upon our elected representatives to support its constituents and help expose deception and corruption in our government.