On February 16, 2005, Dr. Allen Weinstein was sworn in as the ninth Archivist of the United States. Dr. Weinstein was formerly at the International Foundation for Elections Systems as the Senior Advisor for Democratic Institutions and Director of its Center for Democratic Initiatives. He replaced John Carlin as Archivist of the US, who was with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) since 1995 and was nominated by President Clinton.
On April 8, 2004, President Bush announced his intention to nominate Dr. Allen Weinstein of Maryland to be the new Archivist of the United States effective June 2004. Upon receiving numerous concerns and statements from several historical and archival organizations, including ARL, about the administration's lack of consultation with the appropriate groups, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on July 22, 2004, to address Mr. Weinstein's commitment to public-records access.
On September 14, 2004, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released an 81-page report on secrecy and the Bush Administration [PDF]. The report concluded that laws designed to promote public access to information have been undermined while laws that authorize the government to withhold information or operate in secret have repeatedly been expanded. Highlights in the report include:
Details of how the Bush Administration has narrowed the scope and application of the nation's landmark laws promoting open government, including the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and the Presidential Records Act.
Analysis of how the administration has expanded laws that restrict public access to government information, including laws relating to classification of information and secret government operations.
Examination of how the administration has limited congressional access to federal records.
For more information, please see the press release issued by Rep. Waxman [PDF].
In response to this report, Rep. Waxman and other members of the Government Reform Committee announced their intention to introduce the Restore Open Government Act of 2004 [PDF] to promote public access to government information. Specifically, the legislation would restore the presumption of disclosure, ease public oversight of critical infrastructure safeguards, and restore history's access to presidential records, address excessive over-classification, and ease challenging agencies that are improperly withholding information.