RE: NAS President's Statement on FOIA Initiative Relating to Release of

["Weiner, Ruth" <rfweine@sandia.gov>]

I believe this is an excellent letter and deserves lots of letters in
support of its thesis.  Making undefined "data" available is ill-advised in
the extreme.  For example, I do a lot of transportation risk analyses.  I
make mistakes!  I then correct them.  We have found errors in our final
documents.  Often we cannot make revisions right away.  When I do
experimental work, these problems are even more acute -- I have spent lots
of time puzzling over inconsistent or strange results only to figure out
that a detector had malfunctioned.  

What if the anti-nuke opponents who breathe down our necks all the time got
hold of bad or inconsistent or inexplicable data?  What a way to choke off
research!

Clearly only my own opinion

Ruth F. Weiner
Sandia National Laboratories 
MS 0718, POB 5800
Albuquerque, NM 87185-0718
505-844-4791; fax 505-844-0244
rfweine@sandia.gov

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Grissom [mailto:mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU]
Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 11:29 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: NAS President's Statement on FOIA Initiative Relating to
Release of


Radsafe'rs,

*This is a long post, but may be of particular interest
for those following the NRI related thread.*

The following letter (extract) may be of topical
interest, especially for those engaged in
radioepidemiological activities and other forms of
health effects research (and in fact all kinds of US
federally funded research). The issue of when and how
data needs to be released, possibly including BEFORE
publication or final approval/peer review, is the
point of concern.

S.,

MikeG.

----------
January 26, 1999

The Honorable Jacob J. Lew
Director
Office of Management and Budget
Old Executive Office Building, Room 252
Washington, D.C. 20503

Dear Mr. Lew:

On behalf of the Council of the National Academy of
Sciences, I am writing to you concerning the new
legislation that directs you to amend OMB Circular
A-110 "to require Federal awarding agencies to ensure
that all data produced under an award will be made
available to the public through the procedures
established under the Freedom of Information Act...."
...[snip]
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