On the face of it, the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Data Access Act of 2003 appears to be a model text that would allow individuals easier access to pertinent information. But this model language being pushed by the conservative clearinghouse, Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE), is not as innocent as it looks. It is clear from CRE's website that they do not approve of regulations to improve the environment. In line with that belief, the model bill would add layers of red tape to already overburdened state agencies. The model language is based on a federal level revision by the Office of Management Budget (OMB), as directed by the Shelby Amendment, "to require Federal awarding agencies to ensure that all data provided under an award be made available to agencies to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act." The language that ALEC cooked up would go above and beyond what the federal government requires. The bill seeks to "ensure that study findings generated wholly or partially with funding from a State agency by a non-governmental entity and relied on by a State agency in proposing or promulgating a rule (etc.)…can be subjected to scrutiny." What this boils down to is the potential compromise of intellectual property rights and confidentiality. The federal language only allows access to certain categories of data, whereas the state language does not exempt any categories of data and would compromise the flexibility of states to protect data. The bill also contains language that would subject unpublished data to information requests. The underlying purpose of the act is to make it easier to question valid scientific data and the environmental regulations that are based on such data. Although the bill pretends that the public would benefit from this, it seems instead that only a few businessman who resent regulations would benefit from the "data access".

Ran 10/20/2003