[StBernard] Landrieu Stands Up for La. Newspapers in FEMA Fight

[Westley Annis]

Landrieu Stands Up for La. Newspapers in FEMA Fight Marks national "Sunshine
Week" with column spotlighting need for FEMA, Administration openness and
transparency.

 

WASHINGTON - The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should be more
responsive to Louisiana journalists' inquiries into its disaster response
practices, United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., wrote today.  Her
column, entitled "Let the Sunshine In," was published on the website of the
Poynter Institute, a leading training center and think tank for journalists
and media issues.

 "Open government is a tenet of our Democracy, and accountability is never
more important than in times of crisis," Sen. Landrieu wrote.  "Only by
shining the light of public scrutiny on the government's mistakes can we
take steps to prevent them from repeating."

The Senator highlighted the challenges faced by reporters at the New Orleans
Times-Picayune and Baton Rouge Advocate following requests to FEMA under the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  The Times-Picayune request, filed
two-and-a-half years ago by Pulitzer prizewinning reporter Mark
Schleifstein, has yet to be fulfilled.  The Advocate was recently told that
meeting their request would cost nearly $210,000.  Only after the paper drew
front page attention to the lack of cooperation did FEMA indicate
willingness to work with the Advocate on resolving the issue.

"Today, after their hefty price tag was exposed on the Advocate's front
page, FEMA now appears to have opened the door a crack to cooperation," Sen.
Landrieu wrote.  "Let's hope it swings wide - for the Advocate, Mark
Schleifstein and others in pursuit of the truth.   

"The catastrophic hurricanes and levee failures of 2005 left a lot of
unanswered questions and lessons yet to be learned as we prepare for future
disasters.  These lessons are far too important to leave in the shadows."

Sen. Landrieu's column comes during "Sunshine Week," a national initiative
created by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to spotlight the
importance of open government and freedom of information.  President Bush
recently signed into law the OPEN Government Act, which Sen. Landrieu
sponsored with Senate Judiciary Committee.  The bill restores meaningful
deadlines for agencies to respond to FOIA requests, and among other key
reforms, sets up hotlines and an ombudsman's office to aid requesters.  In
addition, she is working to pass legislation to shield journalists from
undue prosecution for protecting whistleblowers, and has introduced a bill
to ensure local officials determine media credentialing in a disaster.

The full text of Sen. Landrieu's column is attached below, and is published
on PoynterOnline at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=71&aid=139961. 

- 30 -


Let the Sunshine In
by U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once remarked that "sunlight is the
best disinfectant."   As the storm clouds cleared from Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, that sunlight illuminated many aspects of the failed federal
government response to the storms and levee breaks.  

A Freedom of Information Act request by CBS News uncovered the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's prior knowledge of toxic levels of
formaldehyde in trailers provided to nearly 150,000 hurricane-affected
families.   An earlier FOIA request revealed how the Bush Administration
turned away a billion dollars of international assistance.  Thousands of
emails illustrating the federal bureaucracy's incompetence in the days
following the catastrophe only came to light after journalists engaged
FOIA's requirements.

But such FOIA requests are met far too infrequently.  Flawed decision-making
is too often shrouded by an apparent philosophy that "what the public
doesn't know can't hurt us."

On October 5, 2005, Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Mark Schleifstein of
the New Orleans Times-Picayune filed a FOIA request with FEMA regarding its
disaster response operations and planning.  After a year of no response, the
agency contacted him to ask if he was still interested.  He replied with an
emphatic "YES."  

Another year went by.  Then, like a character in a monster movie asking "is
it gone yet?" FEMA asked again whether the paper was still interested, and
again it still was.  That was this January.  It is now late March, and FEMA
has yet to act.

Mark is not alone in facing these delays.  FEMA and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development were due to give Congress a Disaster Housing
Plan last July.  Now they've promised April.  The Army Corps of Engineers
was to deliver a Category 5 hurricane protection plan in December.  An
interim document arrived this month, still without specific guidance on how
the Corps intends to protect the coastal communities of Louisiana.  The list
of statutorily mandated reports either delayed or not delivered at all goes
on and on.

In another journalism example, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported this week
that it had filed a FOIA request in 2006 seeking documentation on FEMA's
contracting procedures and the decisions behind deploying travel trailers
across the Gulf Coast.  FEMA says they will release the information - for a
fee.  The going price for the truth is apparently $209,990, principally to
defray copying costs.  The agency said the documents are not available
electronically and that the only hard copies are stored in its New Orleans
field office.  Meanwhile, on its website, FEMA itself advises that "if you
plan ahead and copy what you have onto compact disks, you can be secure in
knowing that they will not be lost in the future."

As we this week mark national "Sunshine Week," I am proud to report that
Congress is making headway in attempts to assure greater government openness
and transparency.  

On New Year's Eve, the President signed into law the OPEN Government Act of
2007, which I cosponsored with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt.  The bill restores meaningful deadlines for agencies to respond
to FOIA requests, and among other key reforms, sets up hotlines and an
ombudsman's office to aid requesters.  

In addition, we are working to pass legislation to shield journalists from
undue prosecution for protecting whistleblowers, and I have introduced a
bill to ensure local officials determine media credentialing in a disaster -
not Washington bureaucrats.

Open government is a tenet of our Democracy, and accountability is never
more important than in times of crisis. Only by shining the light of public
scrutiny on the government's mistakes can we take steps to prevent them from
repeating.  

Today, after their hefty price tag was exposed on the Advocate's front page,
FEMA now appears to have opened the door a crack to cooperation.  Let's hope
it swings wide - for the Advocate, Mark Schleifstein and others in pursuit
of the truth.   The catastrophic hurricanes and levee failures of 2005 left
a lot of unanswered questions and lessons yet to be learned as we prepare
for future disasters.  These lessons are far too important to leave in the
shadows.

###