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Government Information Quarterly Contents

Government Information Quarterly

Volume 6, Number 4, 1989 (index)

CONTENTS

Discussion Forum:
From File Drawer to Floppy Disk: FOIA
Implications of Electronic Data Collection
Raised in Two Recent Supreme Court Cases
Jane E. Kirtley ................................................... 335

A Symposium
Government Information Policy and the Reagan Administration:
An Overview and Assessment
Harold C. Relyea ................................................ 341

Managing the Freedom of Information Act
and Federal Information Policy:
The Reagan Years
Lotte E. Feinberg ................................................ 345

Information Policy, National Security,
and the Reagan Administration
Harold C. Relyea ................................................ 365

Congressional Access to Executive Branch Information:
Lessons from Iran-Contra
Louis Fisher ..................................................... 383

Government Publications and Publishing
during the Reagan Years
Peter Hernon ................................................... 395

Contributors ........................................................ 411

Reviews
John A. Shuler, Editor

Government Publications for the School Library Media Center:
A Videotape for the Busy Media Specialist
Produced by Deborah Hollens
Reviewed by Kathleen A. Ross ..................................... 413

Liberty Denied: The Current Rise of Censorship in America
By Donna A. Demac
Reviewed by Harold B. Shill ....................................... 414

A Presidential Initiative on Information Policy
By John Shattuck and Muriel Morisey Spence
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ........................................ 415

Private Rights, Public Wrongs
By Michael Rogers Rubin
Reviewed by Sanda Erdelez ....................................... 416

Population Information in Twentieth Century Census Volumes: 1950-1980
By Suzanne Schulze
Reviewed by Teresa L. Demo ...................................... 416

Records of the Presidency: Presidential Papers and
Libraries from Washington to Reagan
By Frank L. Schick
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ........................................ 417

Strengthening Federal Information Policy: Opportunities
and Realities at OMB
By Gary Bass and David Plocher
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ........................................ 418

List of Titles Received ................................................. 419

Index/Volume 6 ..................................................... 427

Managing the Freedom of
Information Act and Federal
Information Policy:
The Reagan Years

LOTTE E. FEINBERG

This article examines management of the Freedom of Information Act and how Federal information policy changed during the eight years of the Reagan administration. The article analyzes the 1986 F.O.I.A. amendments and, particularly, the fee waiver provisions; examines the varying congressional and executive interpretations of these amendments; and considers the Reagan administration's skillful use of traditional manager ial tools in new ways to shape its policy and implement its philosophy.

Information Policy,
National Security, and the
Reagan Administration

HAROLD C. RELYEA

In forrmulating its information policies, the Reagan administration sought not only to realize effective safeguards against Soviet intelligence and espionage efforts, but also to return the United States to a position of military strength. Consequently, both American domestic and foreign policy became permeated by a more strident anti-communist attitude, manifesting itself in increased defense spending and preparations, expanded internal security procedures, broadened official secrecy arrangements, more vigorous enforcement of laws restricting the availability of information and goods of possible benefit to hostile nations, and pursuit of new authority for more strictly controlling the acquisition of American scientific and technological knowledge and commodities by foreign interests. These efforts were justified in terms of "national security." Ronald Reagan's heir and successor in the Oval Office has given little indication of any significant changes to be made in national security information policies. Thus, for the next few years, it appears that America will recover only slowly from the Reagan national security information policy legacy.

Congressional Access to
Executive Branch Information:
Lessons from Iran-Contra

LOUIS FISHER

The Iran-Contra affair highlights the ongoing contest between Congress and the President over access to information. To carry out their constitutional functions, each branch needs information and the ability to protect the disclosure of that information. In the case of Iran-Contra, legitimate protection of information was replaced by lies and deception on the part of Executive officials, the pursuit of contradictory policies by the Executive Branch, and the violation of congressional statutes. Congress was deni ed the information it needed to discharge constitutional responsibilities, requiring it to reassert legislative prerogatives by tightening oversight statutes and scrutinizing presidential nominees who had some involvement in Iran-Contra. As a result of prosecutions by the Independent Counsel, a number of Executive officials and private citizens who participated in Iran-Contra have already pled guilty or been found guilty by Federal juries. Other than some temporary mending of fences and promises of good-faith, it is uncertain whether Iran-Contra will yield more permanent and beneficial lessons.

Government Publications
and Publishing during
the Reagan Years

PETER HERNON

The Reagan administration adopted policies and practices that managed, controlled, reduced, and, in some instances, restricted the flow of government publications and information to the public. This overview identifies the relevant policy instruments used by the Administration in this regard, and indicates that Congress also reduced public access to government publications and information. In addition, the article assesses the legacy of the Reagan administration and concludes that negative features outweigh the positive contributions. That legacy rejects the concept of government information as a public good and replaces it with another concept--govermnent information as an economic good. The Administration equated the economic good with cost reduction and viewed benefit as a subset of cost.

Contributors

Lotte E. Feinberg is Professor of Public Administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York. During the past several years, she has written articles and book reviews on the Freedom of Information Act; served on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review, Criminal Justice Review, and the Journal of Drug Issues; and been a speaker and consultant on managing the F.O.I. Act for several Federal and state agencies. She is currently writing a book on the F.O. I. Act and the management of Federal information policy.

Louis Fisher is a Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. His books include President and Congress (1972), Presidential Spending Power (LQ75), The Constitution between Friends (19178), The Politics of Shared Power (1981, 1997), Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President (1985), and Constitutional Dialogues (1988). His book on American Constitutional Law will be published by Random House/McGraw-Hill in 1989.

Peter Hernon, who received his Ph.D. from Indiana University, teaches courses on government information, national information policy, research methods, and the evaluation of library services at Simmons College, Boston. He is the founding editor of Govemment Information Quarterly and the author of 23 books and more than 60 articles.

Jane E. Kirtley is Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, an association of reporters and editors dedicated to protecting the First Amendment interests of the media. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern University's MedilI School of Journalism, and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University, Schoo l of Law. She is a former newspaper reporter, and has practiced law in Rochester, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Harold C, Relyea is a Specialist in American National Government with the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, and is a member of the Government Information Quarterly Editorial Board. Apart from his CRS responsibilities, Dr. Relyea has written widely on a variety of aspects of government information policy and practice. He recently co-edited United States Government Infomiation Policies (Ablex, 1989), with Charles R. McClure and Peter Hernon, and is currently completing Silencing Science: National Security Controls on Scientific Communication, which is scheduled for publica- tion by Rutgers University Press in 1990.