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Sssh! It’s a Secret
The FAS Project on Government Secrecy Blog contains an informative post about secret sessions of the House of Representatives, including one that took place on March 13th to consider classified matters concerning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). For more information about secret sessions, read "Secret Sessions of the House and Senate" and "Secret Sessions of Congress: A Brief Historical Overview," by the Congressional Research Service. I knew that the Senate held secret sessions (54 since 1929), but I did not know that the House only held three secret sessions since 1830 and they took place in 1979, 1980, and 1983! However, there were unsuccessful attempts to hold a secret session to discuss the assessment of the war in Iraq in 2006 (search for page H7371) and the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2008 (pages H4795-4796, H4808, and H4867-68). Also, the proceedings of a secret session are not published unless the House or Senate votes to release them. If they vote to release them, then the transcripts will be printed in the Congressional Record, but if the House votes not to release them, then the they are preserved at NARA and may be available to the public after 30 years. Continue reading
National Freedom of Information Coalition Conference
The National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) will hold a national conference, entitled, "2008 FOI Summit", May 9-10, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. Here are some of the panels: FOI Reform Efforts: Rewriting your state's laws? FOI 2.0: Wikis and podcasts and blogs, oh my! Sunshine Week Roundtable Coalition Care and Feeding Continue reading
“Congresearch” Congressional Research Tutorial
I finally found some good news to cheer me up after writing the last two posts. ;-) UC Berkeley Library used wiki software to create a congressional research tutorial called Congresearch. It includes Flash tutorial videos on finding a bill, a hearing, a congressional debate, etc. This one is my favorite. Over time, more tutorials will be added. You can offer them feedback too. The tutorial homepage also contains links to current congressional news, recent votes and a link to their customized Congressional Search Engine created with Google CSE to create a focused Google search on current official U.S. Congressional websites and news organizations focusing on Congress. I am in Gov Doc 2.0 Nerd Utopia. Continue reading
Another Library Closes…
Ok, this is just getting depressing. I need to find some happy news in the land of government information and libraries. Another government library bites the dust: The F.E. Warren Air Force Base Closes Library. Air Force budget cuts have forced the Base to close its library facility. Library resources, including the Internet, professional military education materials, self-help literature, and test study resources, will be available at "other locations" on base. The reallocation of resources formerly housed at the library will now be situated in "more relevant" facilities, including a new base-wide wireless Internet expansion (what does that mean?) "We've taken what potentially looks like a negative to a hugely positive," Hirschel said. "Everything about the library still exists, there just won't be a physical building." What about the librarians? Where did they go? Where are these "other locations" that the resources supposedly went to? This all sounds eerily familiar to the EPA library closures, but on a smaller scale... Continue reading
EPA Management Incompetence?
Information Today published an article on the recent hearing and issues surrounding the EPA library closures that I've been blogging about this week: "EPA Library Closures: Management Incompetence or Something More Sinister?". I was hoping they would discuss or speculate what exactly the author deemed "sinister" but it's basically just an in-depth summary of the hearing and witness testimonies. Read between the lines? Continue reading
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