Bipartisan Executive Branch Reform Bill Advances in House
April 6th, 2006 by Steven AftergoodAn ambitious bill (pdf) to promote an entire menu of “good government” reforms in the executive branch was endorsed on a bipartisan basis in the House Government Reform Committee today and reported to the full House.
The bill would notably limit the use of “pseudo-classification” markings such as “sensitive but unclassified” and “for official use only” unless they are authorized by statute or regulation. Such markings have been increasingly used by government agencies to restrict public access to unclassified information.
The “Executive Branch Reform Act of 2006,” HR 5112, was introduced by Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) and Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-CA), and unanimously supported by the Committee’s members.
Among its various provisions the bill would: end secret meetings between lobbyists and most executive branch officials; enhance protections for national security whistleblowers; and ban covertly sponsored government propaganda.
April 6th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
>Among its various
>provisions the bill
>would: end secret meetings between lobbyists
>and most executive branch
>officials
Oh good grief, we all know there are no secert meetings going on behind closed door. Next thing, someone will be saying there are evelopes stuffed with cash being passed under the table.
April 11th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
They can pass all the laws they’d like to. Not a one of them will mean a thing unless somebody is willing to enforce them. What with the “Oversight? What oversight?” attitude of our current batch of congresfolk, it’s difficult to imagine this making any difference whatsoever even if it does go through.