Good afternoon, I’m Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch.  Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation dedicated to promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.  Through its educational endeavors over the last eleven years, Judicial Watch has advocated high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life and has sought to ensure that political and judicial officials do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people.  

A core part of Judicial Watch’s mission is to use the Freedom of Information Act and other open records laws to uncover the often unpleasant truths about the operations of our government and the conduct of our public officials.

Enacted in 1966, the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) is the legal cornerstone of open government.  This law allows access to information about government operations to individuals and groups and provides redress in federal court when executive branch agencies fail to respond in a timely fashion (if at all) and/or improperly withhold documents.  FOIA, unfortunately does not apply to Congress. 

In terms of ideology, the FOIA had been associated chiefly with left-of-center causes and approaches to public policy.  This is understandable since, other than the four year Carter presidency, nominally right-of-center administrations dominated American government from 1968 until President Clinton was elected in 1992.  And then conservatives discovered FOIA.  In 1994, Judicial Watch was founded and began, as part of its anti-corruption mission, using the FOIA tool to uncover and pursue issues of corruption in the Clinton administration.  Since that time, Judicial Watch has filed more than 400 open records requests, leading to the release of hundreds of thousands of government documents into the public domain. 

Perhaps our most notable FOIA investigation was against the Clinton Commerce Department and concerned the alleged sale of seats on Clinton Commerce Department trade missions in exchange for political contributions.  The resulting litigation lasted ten years and is ongoing.  In the course of this FOIA lawsuit, a federal judge, frustrated by government misconduct, allowed deposition discovery of Clinton administration officials and Judicial Watch was able to uncover and document the corruption we suspected.  In awarding Judicial Watch $900,000 in attorneys fees and costs earlier this year, the court noted how Judicial Watch’s FOIA work achieved reform and accountability:

“As it turns out – according to Judicial Watch and not contested by the DOC (Department of Commerce) – disclosures made as a result of this litigation spurred two Congressional committee investigations and a Federal Election Commission investigation into the DOC’s alleged sale of foreign mission trade seats. Further, the DOC revised its trade mission participant selection policy to explicitly exclude consideration of past political contributions and activities.”

(Unsurprisingly, the Bush administration is appealing this court award for Clinton administration misconduct.) 

The Bush administration did not change Judicial Watch’s approach to FOIA and open government.  We’ve battled the Bush administration on everything from energy task force records to documents about Medicare cost estimates to government documents on immigration enforcement.  We have numerous FOIA lawsuits against the Bush administration.  The Clinton administration was open on paper but would shred documents in practice and otherwise obstruct the FOIA process.  By contrast, the Bush administration is unapologetic in its secrecy and pervasive disdain for the letter and principle of the open records laws. 

Some conservatives complain about FOIA as costing too much or stifling government decision-making.  What strange concerns!  The government becomes leviathan in size and then we’re told that it costs to much to document it operations.  The government can do everything but we’re told citizens can know nothing about its operations.  Secrecy breeds corruption.  Government bureaucrats work for us and it is imperative taxpayers know who they are and what they do.   

Conservatives are increasingly coming round to this view.  Senator John Cornyn, the conservative Republican from Texas, is pushing legislation to further strengthen FOIA.   And Judicial Watch has contributed to the conservative understanding of the importance of open government through its Open Records Project – which is designed to help conservative groups and activists use FOIA to advance their public policy goals.  We have also published an Open Records Handbook, a “how-to” guide for citizens which we are making available to all of you today.

We also thought it important that the public be educated on the value of open government.  Earlier this year, we made a major $300,000 radio advertisement buy on the Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity radio programs.  This is the ad that ran repeatedly on those programs….

And, of course, our efforts to educate the public includes this important panel, “The Case for Open Government.”  We are joined by expert group with many years experience advocating for open government:

Mark Tapscott, a veteran Washington journalist, is Director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy and the Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi Fellow.  He writes frequently in the media on First Amendment, transparency and accountability in government, and has testified before Congress on the Freedom of Information Act.  Mr. Tapscott is an active member of the National Press Club, while also serving on the Media Bloggers Association Board of Directors. 

Lucy A. Dalglish is the Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a voluntary, unincorporated association of reporters and news editors dedicated to protecting the First Amendment interests of the news media.  Based in Arlington, Va., the Reporters Committee has provided research, guidance and representation in major press cases in state and federal courts for 30 years.  In 1996, Ms. Dalglish was one of 24 journalists, lawyers, lawmakers, educators, researchers, librarians and historians inducted into the charter class of the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.

Robert S. Becker has been a solo-practitioner lawyer in Washington, D.C., since 1991.  His practice includes appellate litigation and counseling for journalists, authors and other creative individuals on media legal issues.  From 1982 to 1991 he was assistant director for publications and a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.  He is the Society of Professional Journalists' Project Sunshine Chair in D.C., the D.C. Professional Chapter's First Amendment/Freedom of Information chair, and he serves on SPJ's National FOI Committee as the Mid-Atlantic representative.

Steven Aftergood is a senior research analyst at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) specializing in national security information and intelligence policies.  He directs the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, which works to reduce the scope of official secrecy and to promote reform of related security practices.  In addition to authoring and co-authoring a large number of papers and essays for major publications, he writes and edits the email newsletter Secrecy News, which is read by more than 10,000 self-selected subscribers. 

Christopher J. Farrell joined Judicial Watch in 1999 as the organization’s Director of Investigations & Research, and has been a member of the Board of Directors since September 2003.  He was a Distinguished Military Graduate from Fordham University with a B.A. in History, whereupon he accepted a Regular Army Commission and served as a Military Intelligence Officer – specializing in Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence.  Mr. Farrell has authored numerous articles and lectured on both government corruption issues and intelligence matters.  He is a member of Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness and a constituent member of the State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council.