Public Has "Right-to-Know"

NEEDED: A TOP PUBLIC CLASSIFICATION to replace Top Secret. Withholding information about government operations needs more justification than "mere executive whim." Hitting at government information policies was James S. Pope, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, before the House Subcommittee on Government Information. The committee is holding hearings on bills to lift the secrecy covering government information. Clark R. Mollenhoff of the journalistic fraternity Sigma Delta Chi had harsh words for executive secrecy. Congress has let the Executive Branch whittle its power through secrecy tactics, says Mollenhoff. At the root of all the trouble is 5 USC 22, a government "housekeeping" act passed in 1789. This act authorizes an agency head to "prescribe regulations . . . for the custody, use, and preservation of the records . . ." The trouble comes with the word "preservation." Critics say thousands of junior executives in Government think it means to preserve public records from the public. To clear up ...