Reagan's Reign of Secrecy

Since his inauguration in January of 1981, Ronald Reagan has presided over the most widespread effort to restrict and control information in the peacetime history of the United States. Using a variety of means, the Reagan administration has tried-and in many cases succeeded-to curtail the flow of information from both government and non-government sources to the American public. Through secrecy, censorship, and selective dissemination of information, the White House has attempted to shut out public scrutiny of government decisions.

The Reagan administration has proposed new legislation, implemented new regulations, and broadly interpreted existing law to create, in effect, what can be called a "National Security State." The Reagan efforts can be divided into two broad areas: those aimed at increasing government secrecy, and those intended to increase government control over the flow of public information.

The assault on the free flow of information in the United States has included weakening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), silencing government officials, and cutting back the government's role in generating, collecting, and disseminating information.

The Freedom of Information Act

One of the most effective tools the public has to obtain government information is the Freedom of Information Act. Before the FOIA was passed in 1966, government agencies routinely refused to disclose embarrassing or controversial information. Since 1966, however, and particularly since Congress strengthened the Act in 1974, both individuals and the press have used the FOIA to open the government up to public scrutiny.

Among other things, the press and public use the FOIA to: hold government accountable to the people; disclose government waste and inefficiency; keep the public informed on important health and safety issues; gain access to information needed to monitor the performance of government agencies; and petition agencies to carry out their statutory responsibilities.

During its first year in office, however, the Reagan administration proposed sweeping legislation to restrict the FOIA. In particular, the administration proposed to increase the number and type of law enforcement records and business records that presently may be exempted from disclosure under the FOIA.

The bill would have kept secret many law enforcement records dealing with organized crime and counterintelligence, as well as domestic disorders under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Customs, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Bowing to business pressure to protect a very broad definition of "trade secrets," the administration proposed to exclude all "commercial or financial information" obtained from any business entity if the publication of the information might "impair... the legitimate business interests" of the firm. Exempting such information from disclosure under the FOIA could allow the government to suppress evidence of unsafe consumer goods, affirmative action violations, deceptive advertising, dangerous food and drugs, and environmental hazards.

In addition to its attempts to classify more information, the Reagan administration would have made it harder to challenge the classification of information withheld in the face of a FOI request. The Reagan administration wanted to shift the judicial standard in FOIA challenges from "was the information properly classified?" to "was the withholding of the information arbitrary or capricious?" This subtle shift would essentially have prevented the public from challenging the classification of any information.

President Reagan has also sought to exempt the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency completely from FOIA disclosure. To date, Congress has resisted these attempts, although the CIA won a limited exemption from processing certain "operational files" in FOI requests.

On April 2, 1982, the President signed Executive Order 12356 on Classification, reversing a 25-year trend towards making government information more accessible to the public. The Reagan Executive Order for the first time authorized reclassification of previously declassified material, as well as classification of information not generated by the government. The Executive Order also changed the guidelines for the level and duration of classification.

Reagan's order further required government agencies to classify information at the highest possible level and to decide in favor of classification when "in doubt." This reverses the Carter administration position that government employees should opt for the lowest level of classification possible if any was necessary. Almost 20 million documents were classified in 1984 alone.

Carter had required declassification twenty years after its publication, except in extraordinary circumstances. This too was reversed by Reagan.

Congressional criticism of the Executive Order was sharp; a House subcommittee called the administration's explanations for the order "inadequate, inconsistent, incomplete, or not credible." But lawmakers failed to overrule the order with new legislation.

The Reagan executive branch has also weakened the implementation of the Act through delays in responding to requests as well as through a reevaluation of costs for FOI requests.

In one study of the State Department in 1985, it was found that the average FOI request took more than 20 months to process. The study also showed that the Reagan administration had withheld "almost four times the amount of information as the preceding two administrations" and had "more than doubled the number of denied documents."

On January 7, 1983 the justice Department, under pressure, clarified its policy on FOIA fee waivers, further restricting use of the FOIA. According to the justice Department, reductions in charges for FOI requests should only be made if the agency determined that the information would primarily benefit the general public.

The administration continued its campaign to increase government secrecy on other levels by releasing the "Presidential Directive Safeguarding National Security Information" in March 1983. The directive required government employees with access to particularly sensitive sitive classified information to submit all future writings on what it considered "national security matters" to prepublication review; and to submit to polygraph examinations if asked to in the course of an investigation or security check.

These regulations were billed as an effort to stop unauthorized leaks of classified information that could be harmful to national security.

The Presidential directive gave federal agencies broad power to review books, articles, speeches, letters to the editor, book reviews, and scholarly papers bv current or former employees. Widely viewed as open to abuse, the directive would effectively silence one of the most important sources of information about how the Federal government works-commentary by former top officials who were involved in national and foreign policymaking. The American Society of Newspaper Editors called Reagan's orders "peacetime censorship of a scope unparalleled in this country since the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791."

Adverse Congressional reaction to the prepublication review provision was swift. After the Republicancontrolled Senate voted to postpone implementation of the clause, Reagan withdrew it.

The second major provision of the Reagan directive is also controversial. Critics charge that forcing government officials to submit to lie detector tests is part of a campaign to discourage whistle-blowers; while others point out that lie-detector tests are so unreliable that they are inadmissible as evidence in federal court. Jay Peterzell of the Center for National Security Studies observes that "the administration's sensitivity to leaks seems to vary according to political, rather than security, concerns."

The Reagan administration has not only increased government secrecy, but has also limited the amount of information that the Government itself generates and disseminates for the benefit of the American public. Some critics charge that the budget process is being used to shield significant changes in public policy and to deny the American public information which improves marketplace effectiveness. With large-scale budget cutbacks, the administration has justified a selective moratorium on government publications and studies. These budget cuts have resulted in significantly reduced public access to government information. Many of the cuts will cripple agencies and programs that develop basic information for homemakers, farmers, the elderly, consumers, and educators.

Budget cuts of 30 percent in research and staffing at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Labor have meant that less information is available to set health and safety standards and to inform workers, women, minorities, and consumers of their rights. The Energy Department's energy conservation programs and its Financial Reporting System, which provides information on the financial activities of large oil companies, have also suffered drastic cuts.

In the spring of 1981, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued Bulletin 81-16, which placed a moratorium on both new and old government pamphlets, movies, publications, and audio-visual aids, and also closed most Government Printing Office bookstores.

The "moratorium" was aimed primarily at publications that contradict the administration's philosophy or that have drawn opposition from powerful industries. One example is The Car Book, which provides the results of the government's mileage and safety tests, defect recalls, and insurance discounts and surcharges by make and model. Requested by millions of American consumers, it was the government's most popular publication until then-Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis, decrying it as "anti-industry," decided in 1981 not to reprint it.

By January 1984, 3,287 government publications had been terminated, nearly one-fourth of the total number of government publications produced. Other publications were turned over to private publishers, and the cost skyrocketed. The cost of the Federal Register increased 300 percent after it was turned over to private publishers.

The Reagan administration has not been content to limit the flow of information from the government to the public, but has sought to stifle the spread of information generated by non-government sources as well. This campaign has been waged on several fronts: limitations on the press, new regulations restricting the activities of non-profit corporations, and attempts to silence criticism from foreign sources. All of these efforts demonstrate that the Reagan White House does not place a high priority on informing the American public about government activities even from independent sources.

Limitations on the press have taken various forms, from support of legislation designed to discourage investigative reporting to barring the press from Grenada during the U.S. invasion. On another front, the administration has sought to limit criticism from outside sources (primarily public interest groups) through proposed restrictions on the advocacy activities of non-profit groups receiving federal funds.

The OMB released OMB Circular A-122, "Cost Principles for Non-profit Organizations," which would effectively prevent a group accepting any federal funds from using any of its money-including privately generated funds-for any political purpose, such as lobbying federal agencies or Congress, endorsement of candidates, and community education or organizing. As Organizing Notes observes, "Small organizations would have to choose... federal funds or free speech." Since a vast majority of the organizations affected by A-122 are "public interest" groups which have often been critical of Reagan administration policy, it is hard not to infer political motive in the regulation. Under pressure from many sources, including defense contractors, the circular has been modified, but still remains law.

Foreign Sources of Information

The fear of public debate has also led the Reagan administration to seek control over foreign sources of information and criticism.

In February of 1983, the administration used the Foreign Agents Registration Act to label a number of foreign films as "propaganda." Under the administration's interpretation of the law, the films had to carry disclaimers, be registered with the justice Department, and film distributors had to list with the government the names of the theaters and organizations showing the films and the number of people in attendance. The 1938 law was enacted to "identify agents of foreign principals who might engage in subversive acts or in spreading foreign propaganda." The Reagan administration labelled as "propaganda" two Canadian films on the effects of acid rain, as well as "If You Love This Planet," an Academy award winning documentary on effects of nuclear war.

The State Department has used the 1952 McCarran-Walters Act to deny visas to foreigners who do not agree ideologically with the administration; and several hundred visas have been rejected, ranging from that of Nobel prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez to those of over three hundred delegates from Europe, Africa, Australia, Canada, and Japan who were invited to a special United Nations session on disarmament in June of 1982. Hortensia Allende, wife of the slain Chilean president, was also denied a visa. Though it was not her first trip to the United States, the State Department found that her entry to make various public appearances and speeches would be "prejudicial to U.S. interests." Her visa denial drew sharp criticism from Congress and the press alike: "I'm beginning to believe that the Reagan administration thinks it cannot survive the criticism or discussion of important issues," commented Representative Fortney H. Stark (D-CA).

Ronald Reagan claims to want to "get government off the backs of the people," yet his administration has instituted unprecedented and far-reaching controls on the flow of information. The efforts of the Reagan administration to increase government secrecy by weakening implementation of the FOIA and through Presidential directives, coupled with its attempts to control outside information, have moved the United States toward a

"National Security State" more associated with the authoritarian regimes that occupy the President's vitriols than of a democratic society in which open, informed debate is encouraged. The people's right to know about their government's activities and their right to be informed by their government should not be a partisan matter but should transcend party affiliations and loyalties. As Alan Wolfe wrote, "ideas are too valuable to be left in the hands of those who detest them."

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate based in Washington, D.C. Nader founded the Multinational Monitor and is co-author, with William Taylor, of The Big Boys: Power and Position in American Business.