Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

I’m Lauren Harper, the first Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), and welcome to “The Classifieds.” Read on to learn if the new declassification task force is a stunt, why the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety reports should be public, and more of this week’s most important secrecy stories.

Is the declassification task force a stunt?

The House of Representatives has created a “task force on the declassification of federal secrets.” But the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s effort, to be led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, leaves much to be desired. Here are a few shortcomings:

  • The task force, whose mission is to “examine the declassification of materials in the public interest,” is only authorized for six months. But declassifying records often takes years — especially when multiple agencies are involved.
  • A letter it sent to the Energy Department suggests the task force is limited to making recommendations about whether the documents it reviews should be declassified. This likely means the agencies could still keep records secret if they choose.
  • It’s also not clear if the task force will have enough staffers with the necessary security clearances to review records. House staffers are rarely granted clearance at the highest level — like TS/SCI or Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearances — which could make a large review and declassification effort impractical.

Could the task force work? Maybe, but initial signs indicate it’s more bark than bite.

FAA safety reports should be public

The Federal Aviation Administration knew how dangerous Washington, D.C.’s Reagan National Airport was for years prior to January’s crash. FAA safety reports reviewed by The New York Times showed multiple near-collisions reported at the airport over the years. The reports were not publicly released, making it harder for Congress and the public to improve aviation safety rules.

Currently, most public aviation safety data comes from the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The ASRS is a valuable database of voluntarily submitted claims maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but it has limited practical implications and isn’t a substitute for statutorily mandated public reporting. Congress should require the FAA to make its safety reports public.

National Archives under threat

FPF helped lead a coalition letter to President Donald Trump protesting both the unwarranted firing of the National Archives and Records Administration’s head official, the archivist of the United States, and the possibility her replacement may be someone who does not have the necessary professional qualifications to lead the agency. (These concerns are exacerbated by reports that Trump has a list of more NARA officials he wants fired over their suspected involvement in his classified documents case.)

If the National Archives doesn’t have qualified leadership, the rest of the government will have an easier time keeping secrets. NARA plays a key role in making sure agencies across the government are appropriately saving their records. And the public needs to know now more than ever that the agency has qualified leadership. Read the FPF letter here.

What I’m reading

DOGE software approval alarms Labor Department employees (NBC News).

The Labor Department has reportedly granted DOGE approval to transfer federal data out of the agency. It’s unclear if the department will retain copies of the records, and/or if the transfer to DOGE — which is a Presidential Records Act entity — will effectively turn what were federal records into presidential ones. This would make it harder to request the records under the Freedom of Information Act and harder to ensure they are being properly preserved.

FBI must disclose more info about Trump classified docs case, judge rules (Politico).

The FBI tried to avoid searching for records in response to Bloomberg reporter Jason Leopold’s FOIA lawsuit for records about its investigation into Trump’s classified documents case. But U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling undercut the bureau’s secrecy arguments. She ordered the FBI to search for records and provide a timetable for release by a Feb. 20 deadline.

Madison enters the debate over redaction fees for police body-camera footage (Tone Madison).

Madison, Wisconsin is considering passing an ordinance that would bring the city’s public records law into alignment with state law, which allows law enforcement “to consider the identities and motivations of records requesters to an unusual extent. It creates the possibility of punishing records requestors with a $10,000 fine.” It goes without saying that Wisconsin’s law is a terrible precedent that would make it easier for agencies to ignore FOIA requests they don’t like, and even intimidate requesters from filing requests in the first place. It should be repealed, not reinforced, at the local level.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time.

Transparently yours,

Lauren Harper
Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy
Freedom of the Press Foundation