Jackson Free Press

Updated.

The Society of Professional Journalists has launched a campaign to discover which U.S. senator has placed a "secret hold" on the Open Government Act.

The Open Government Act would strengthen the Freedom of Information Act by reducing delays in releasing information and by holding public officials accountable when they break the law.

On April 24, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed the bill, which the House of Representatives passed in March. However, before the bill could come to the floor of the Senate for a full vote, which was scheduled for May 24, an anonymous senator placed a hold on the bill.

As the SPJ article put it: A secret hold. On a bill that would help the public have greater access to public information. Think about that for a minute.

In response, SPJ has launched a campaign to "out" the senator who placed the hold. Similar campaigns in the past have produced results:

In August 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) put a hold on a bill to create a searchable public database of all federal grants and contracts. Stevens' role was revealed only after online public advocates and journalists forced senators to go on the record about whether they placed the hold.

SPJ is keeping a running tally of senators who have disavowed the hold. Both Sen. Thad Cochran and Sen. Trent Lott remain among those who may have placed the hold.

This afternoon, the Public Eye called Sens. Cochran and Lott to ask if they had placed the secret hold. They have not yet responded.

Update

Sen. Cochran spokeswoman Margaret McPhillips confirmed to the Jackson Free Press that he had not placed a hold on the act this morning. "Senator Cochran is a strong supporter of open government and transparency," McPhillips said.

She pointed to Senate Bill 223, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, which Cochran sponsored with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis. That bill would require senators to post their campaign finance reports online. Both the president and the House of Representatives already post those reports online, McPhillips said. The bill is currently before the full Senate, but it has been held up by—you guessed it—an anonymous hold from another senator.

Previous Comments

ID

172878

Comment

I saw this story this afternoon and found it very interesting. This is a bill that passed the House easily and, by all accounts, would pass the Senate. So who is the anti-open goverment Senator? As of this posting, 36 Senators, including Lott and Cochran, remain to be counted...

Author

iTodd

Date

2007-05-30T21:07:07-06:00

ID

172879

Comment

Ooooh. Juicy. I see that a few of the senators that have not been accounted for are presidential candidates (Clinton, Dodd, McCain). If I were them, I wouldn't hesitate in telling everyone, "Twern't me!" McCain is supposed to be in town tomorrow for a fundraiser, so maybe one of you can ask him then. That is, if you have $2300 to spare.

Author

L.W.

Date

2007-05-30T21:29:37-06:00

ID

172880

Comment

Barack Obama is coming June 15. I'm sure it would be a high-dollar fundraiser, too. It's a shame how the average man and woman--who put these people into power in the first place--can't get such access to them. But I digress. To the topic at hand, what are these guys afraid of?

Author

golden eagle '97

Date

2007-05-30T22:01:54-06:00

ID

172881

Comment

Barack Obama is coming June 15. I'm sure it would be a high-dollar fundraiser, too. It's a shame how the average man and woman--who put these people into power in the first place--can't get such access to them. But I digress. I know, and one news program focused on how many of the candidates are wealthy. I think they said Obama makes the least of them all, but even though it's less than a million, it's still six figures. To the topic at hand, what are these guys afraid of? Good question. I say that if you have nothing to hide, go ahead and clear the air, you know?

Author

L.W.

Date

2007-05-31T05:30:30-06:00

ID

172882

Comment

I agree with you all about money in politics. Isn't Mitt Romney worth $250 million? I saw the other day that he has pledged to donate his $400,000 presidential salary to charity if he is elected. That's only .16 percent of his worth, if my pre-coffee math is holding up. As for Obama, I'm not sure what all he'll be doing here, but I do know he has some kind of public rally and speech planned. So it won't be all fundraising. As for McCain? I haven't heard of any public events.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2007-05-31T08:24:13-06:00

ID

172883

Comment

SPJ has updated the story -- Sen Jon Kyl (R-AZ) admitted to placing the secret hold on the legislation. Secret Sen Exposed

Author

iTodd

Date

2007-05-31T18:02:44-06:00

ID

172884

Comment

Looks like Senator Secrecy has a history of doing stuff like this.

Author

L.W.

Date

2007-05-31T19:02:09-06:00

ID

172885

Comment

I'm kinda surprised that this tactic isn't used more often, especially in highly divisive/politically charged (ok, REALLY charged) bills...

Author

hawkeye

Date

2007-06-01T00:54:38-06:00

ID

172886

Comment

Anybody notice that The Ledge has started a First Amendment blog, well over a year (and many dozens of PDFs, posts and public-records battles) after Brian started this one? And it's funny that Chris Joyner sounds vaguely like he's trying to copy Brian's tone even: Lest this blog become nothing but an endless screed on the difficulties of gaining access to public records, let us now praise openness. Let us now indeed. Can that paper have an original thought!?! And check out all these white male faces on the blog page. Looks suspiciously like their edit-board, Eric Stringfellow notwithstanding. I also find their red-blue blog so typical of lamestream media. They really think that the world sees things as black-and-white, either-or, he-said-she-said as they do, eh? Apparently not, judging from the number of comments on all these blogs. They really should focus on real journalism and editing out the passives in their actual stories. No newspaper that hasn't mastered journalism and writing basics should not bother to try to blog.

Author

ladd

Date

2007-06-19T22:12:13-06:00

ID

172887

Comment

Ah, I found the Ledger's women bloggers. The boyz talk about politics; the chicks talk about parenting because, you know, women aren't into politics and guys aren't into raising kids. They are so predictable.

Author

ladd

Date

2007-06-19T22:43:27-06:00