JunkScience.com coined the term “secret science” and worked on this issue for 18 years.
Click for the bill (H.R. 4012).
Click for our February 1999 “Saving Secret Science” contest.
JunkScience.com coined the term “secret science” and worked on this issue for 18 years.
Click for the bill (H.R. 4012).
Click for our February 1999 “Saving Secret Science” contest.
It’s a start. And making it a law is not the end. The trick is in the observance.
Thank you for your work in pressing for more open science. Most laws that involve changes to agency procedures or authorities take years to enact. Although it may be necessary to reintroduce this legislation in future Congresses, it will never be enacted unless it is introduced and, when necessary, reintroduced. The only change I would suggest to the text of the law is to add “otherwise” (i.e., “unless otherwise prohibited by law”). Presumably this condition applies to some proprietary information or national security information. I can recall one time from my Government days when EPA was hell-bent on publishing many locations where material that could cause mass casualties was in use or stored (sort of a guide for would-be terrorists, although it was publicized as the people’s right to know).
Well that was a waste of time, lame duck Democrat Senate won’t pass it this year. Hope the bill gets reintroduced next year, though I doubt Obama will sign it.