The government has confirmed today that it is "considering" amending the Freedom of Information Act to make it easier for officials to withhold information from the public - a consequence of the Supreme Court judgment in March that led to this afternoon's release of the Prince Charles "black spider memos".
However, after an October letter from the CIA's leadership--which rank and file interrogators from several agencies have criticized--the administration lobbied Congress to insulate the Defense Department and CIA by amending the Freedom of Information Act.
Within the administration, Scalia advocated a presidential veto for a bill to amend the Freedom of Information Act, greatly increasing its scope.
The measure (HB 1716), which amends the required Freedom of Information Act response time from five business days to 21 days, goes into effect immediately and also allows government groups to charge FOIA requesters for the costs associated with retrieving the desired information, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The study protocol was thus amended to allow the collection of information about the socioeconomic and demographic particulars of the transporters, ownership and use of the transport vehicles, and recurrent and fixed costs of maintaining the vehicles.
Members of the expert advisory groups were consulted during this revision process to ensure the accuracy of amended information.
*This blogpost was amended at 1.30pm to take account of information provided by Murray Foote.
With this in mind, the Protection of Freedoms Act, which received royal assent on 1 May, includes a datasets release clause that amends the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
Also in 2009, Switzerland and the United States signed a protocol amending a 1996 tax treaty governing exchanges of information on Americans suspected of avoiding taxes.
Presumably that correspondence continues, but the Freedom of Information Act has now been amended expressly to exclude royal communication.
