Senate rejects attempt to weaken FOIA — for now
By Matthew Rumsey, Sunlight Foundation, June 17, 2015
The Senate debate over the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is always controversial — in part because of the upper chamber's insistence on marking the bill up in a secret session. But this year's bill, which is being wrapped up on the floor this week, was punctuated by a win for open government.
When the NDAA came to the floor last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to attach a controversial cybersecurity measure as an amendment. While most senators appear to support the broad idea of the bill (known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA) it includes several highly controversial provisions — including one that would add an entirely new exemption to FOIA. Thanks to these provisions, privacy and transparency advocates, Sunlight included, have vehemently opposed the bill.
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