[9524] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Advisory Committee resources
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Wolff)
Fri Jan 7 15:00:19 1994
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 14:11:59 -0600 (EST)
From: Stephen Wolff <steve@nsf.gov>
To: James Love <love@essential.org>
Cc: The future Ross Stapleton-Gray <STAPLETON@bpa.arizona.edu>,
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.85.9401071209.A6451-0100000@essential>
> > This is possible, but, having seen the issue come up in the context of the
> > Federal Networking Council and FNC AC already, there might be good reasons
> > for having an Advisory Committee resource *not* be on a Federal government
> > site. This would have to do with what could or couldn't be made public,
> > when and how, with respect to FOIA rules, statutory requirements, etc.
>
>
> Ross, you have raised this issue before, according to scott Armstrong,
> of ways that federal agencies can get around FOIA. Is there really any
> reason why a federal advisory board that wants to make decisions that
> will influence our telecommunications policy should not use a system that
> is subject to FOIA? What could possible be discussed that should not be
> part of the public record?
> jamie
Hold the phone! This is NOT a question of trying to "get around FOIA."
We're talking about a private sector advisory committee to the federal
government, chartered according to the provisions of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act which requires, i.a., that its meetings be announced in
advance in the Federal Register, that all meeting sessions be open to the
public unless specified to be closed in the meeting announcement, that
closing a session can only be done for a VERY few reasons, and that
meeting minutes be kept.
Thus the deliberations of an advisory committee are open to the public -
both at meetings and via the minutes, and any reports the committee might
make and deliver to the government are thereupon subject to FOIA.
BUT: There is (as far as I know) NO law (FOIA or other) that
correspondence (electronic or otherwise) among advisory committee members
be public. Nor if that correspondence were stored on the computers of the
committee members or any other private machine need it be open to the
public. BUT, if it were stored on a government computer, it WOULD be
subject to FOIA. Thus the government, in trying to accommodate its
advisory committee by providing storage, would subject its members to
unwarranted invasion of their privacy which is not required by law.
This is NOT a question of trying to "get around FOIA," but of avoiding its
inappropriate application.
-s
