Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Sunshine Week is March 10-16, 2024.

Q: What is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)?

A: Under this nearly six decades-old federal law, the public has the right to request access to records from any federal agency. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) helps keep check on government overreach, waste, fraud and abuse. Government serves the people, not the other way around. The public has a right to know how taxpayer dollars are spent. FOIA is a vital tool that empowers the people to keep in the know about our government. It requires federal agencies to disclose information requested under the law, unless the requested information falls under nine exemptions that protect individual privacy, national security and law enforcement, for example. Americans shouldn’t be kept in the dark on the work and services provided by the federal government on their behalf. Transparency brings accountability. As a government watchdog, I work to strengthen sunshine laws. That includes putting teeth in the Freedom of Information Act to underscore congressional intent: the people have a right to know. When President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed FOIA into law on July 4, 1966, he wrote, “I signed this measure with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society in which the people’s right to know is cherished and guarded.” My bipartisan Open and Responsive Government Act aims to restore an appropriate legal interpretation altered by a recent Supreme Court ruling. My legislation updates FOIA Exemption 4 to include stronger accountability language and better defines regulatory guardrails for executive agencies. In other words, the federal bureaucracy needs to stop pussyfooting around FOIA and cough up records not shielded by explicit exemptions. Americans can learn how to submit a FOIA request electronically by visiting FOIA.gov and use the search tool to find the right agency to manage your information request.

Q: What is Sunshine Week?

A: Sunshine Week is celebrated during mid-March to honor the birth of the Father of the Constitution and fourth President of the United States, James Madison. Madison’s legacy includes his efforts to hold the government accountable via the separation of powers. By dividing the powers of the federal government into three branches and empowering each branch to keep check on each other, Madison tethered the inherent flaws of human nature. In Federalist 51, he wrote “If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary.” Our system of checks and balances restricts the power grabs of each branch, including the bias of bureaucrats and ambitions of political elites. As a U.S. Senator, I conduct robust congressional oversight to keep bureaucratic overreach in check, including most recently, my efforts to rein in a hasty, heavy-handed proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency that would endanger jobs and food production by smaller meatpacking facilities in rural communities. The EPA says it won’t extend a 60-day public comment period that closes on March 25. That’s hog wash. Abruptly closing the comment window on a federal proposal that expands the EPA’s reach from 180 facilities up to 1,618 facilities across rural America essentially pulls down the shades on participatory democracy.

During the early 20th century, before his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Louis Brandeis emphasized the power of transparency, writing “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Decades later, Judge Damon J. Keith who went on to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled the government couldn’t wiretap individuals without a warrant and is credited for coining the phrase “Democracy dies in darkness.” Today in the 21st century, Sunshine Week helps bring to light the public’s right to know about the operations of government. An informed citizenry strengthens the public trust in our institutions of government and civic life.

From heavy-handed regulations at the EPA to political bias and mismanagement at the FBI, my oversight work is a vital check on the powers of government. As a lifelong family farmer, I know sunshine provides the heat and light essential to grow crops that feed and fuel the world. As a U.S. Senator, I’ve learned that championing sunshine and whistleblower protection laws is essential for holding government accountable to the people and upholding the public trust in a free society. That’s why I’ll continue bringing the heat and pushing transparency to spread sunshine in government.