September 7: Coalition to Release Annual Secrecy Report Card

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3, 2010 - On Tuesday, September 7, OpenTheGovernment.org will release the sixth annual Secrecy Report Card, a quantitative report on indicators of government secrecy. The report chronicles trends in classified and declassified information, the cost of keeping secrets, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), signing statements, use of state secrets, and more. Tuesday's report, the 2010 Secrecy Report Card, covers the last three months of the Bush Administration and the first nine months of the Obama Administration.

The first Secrecy Report Card was published in 2004, the year of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and the third year of the Bush-Cheney Administration. Over the course of the last five years, the reports charted a significant increase in secrecy and a concomitant decrease in accountability.  According to Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, "The 2008 elections were largely seen as a referendum on the extreme secrecy of the last Administration. On his first full day in office, President Obama pledged his Administration would be the most open, transparent and accountable in history. The Secrecy Report Card helps the public monitor the progress, or lack thereof, the President makes toward that goal."