The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a bill moving quickly through the U.S. Senate that would establish a $1 billion new federal agency to respond to bioterrorism and natural disease outbreaks. The secretive agency would be completely exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
Freshman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced the legislation creating the Biological Advanced Research and Development Agency, or BARDA, in the Department of Health and Human Services—moving responsibility for bioterrorism response out of the Department of Homeland Security. The bill—co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)—was approved by committee the next day.
In addition to concerns about the new agency's disruption of work already being done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the protection it grants drug companies from litigation, open government experts expressed to the AJC their concerns about BARDA's near-total secrecy.
"This bill breaks new ground in the area of government secrecy," Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy told the newspaper. "It is an insult to the public."
In a letter to senators, the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government noted that it knows of no other example of an entire agency receiving a blanket exemption from FOIA.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article is online here.
