Let the Sunshine In

posted by The Sailor @ 5:36 PM Permalink

House Passes Open-Government Bills

In a bipartisan confrontation with the White House over executive branch secrecy, the House ignored a stern veto threat and overwhelmingly passed a package of open-government bills yesterday that would roll back administration efforts to shield its workings from public view.
[...]
The White House issued tough statements on all three bills, saying, for example, that the presidential records act was "misguided, and would improperly impinge on the President's constitutional authority, in violation of settled separation of powers principles."

What the WH conveeeniently forgets to mention is that Bush used an 'executive order' to undermine and overturn a law. Let's continue:

The last bill to pass late yesterday was the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which would for the first time extend whistle-blower protection to government scientists.

And why would government scientists need such protection? Gee, I dunno, maybe because of this, this, this and this ... just for starters.