Non-food Things
This Presidents' Day, lift the veil of secrecy that covers the White House
By Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division
Feb 18, 2008 - 10:48:56 AM

If you like the article, could you please do us a favor? Just tell Google News Services that you like foodconsumer.org included in Google News Services. Inclusion in googlenewsservices means many more people can read articles like this. Thanks.
------

As we reflect on our history this Presidents' Day, it is hard to ignore one serious problem: the Bush Administration has blocked access to the very records needed to understand that history!

We have been working to expose President Bush's secrets, but now just one senator is standing in the way. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is blocking a bill that would return presidential records to the American people.

Sessions must be stopped. He is standing between the public and its right to know about the government!

In 2001, President Bush issued an Executive Order that gives current and previous presidents the power to withhold their documents and records INDEFINITELY. What's more, the order extends this extraordinary authority to presidential family members and even vice presidents.

Bush's order was a direct attack on the Presidential Records Act of 1978, a law passed in the wake of Watergate that makes presidential records the property of the American people. Presidents should not be allowed to flout open-government laws and lock away their records with a stroke of a pen.

But this is not just about Bush. It's about the records of ALL presidents.

Right now, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, a bipartisan bill to undo the Bush order, is close to becoming a law, but it is being blocked by Senator Jeff Sessions.

Take Action NOW: Contact your senators and ask how they can allow a colleague to block this important bill.

This Presidents' Day, it's time to lift the veil of secrecy the now covers the White House. The president's business is our business. We have a right to see the records from this administration - -and all presidential administrations.

Thanks,

Daniel De Bonis
Online Organizer
Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division
action@citizen.org