1966 June 20

Republican Rep. Donald Rumsfeld Declares Support for FOIA Bill

 

Republican Congressman Donald Rumsfeld of Illinois on this day formally declared his support of the proposed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Congress passed the FOIA bill was and President Lyndon Johnson signed it into law on July 4, 1966. In fact, Republicans in Congress were generally very supportive of the FOIA, which passed the House of Representatives on a unanimous vote.

The historical irony is that during the war on terrorism following the terrorist attack on 9/11, Rumsfeld, as Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, was a leading participant in one of the most secretive presidential administrations in American history.

The real father of the FOIA was Rep. John E. Moss, who began investigating government secrecy on November 7, 1955.

Read the book on the history of the right to know: Michael Schudson, The Rise of the Right to Know: Politics and the Culture of Transparency, 1945-1975 (2015)

Learn more about FOIA: http://www.foia.gov/

Read: Athan Theoharis, A Culture of Secrecy: The Government Versus the People’s Right to Know (1998)

Check out the FBI FOIA site, which includes FBI files on many individuals and groups: http://www.fbi.gov/foia/

And the CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room

Read about the road to FOIA in Chapter One of: Katherine Scott, Reining in the State (2013)

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