After one request, she received documentation of 11 deaths in such homes over the past three years, but more research and more requests revealed more than 100 deaths. The district council is considering amending the act to improve disclosure of electronic documents, to extend it to apply to private contractors performing government business, and to stiffen penalties against government employees who hinder FOI requests. Government employees who leak secrets will face tougher criminal penalties under a new measure approved by Congress last week. Critics warn that the move could stifle the ability of whistle-blowers and the media to get information to the public. But congressional intelligence committee leaders, backed by the Justice Department, said the tough measure was needed to stop the flow of classified information that may undermine national security and jeopardize lives.
Current law makes it a felony to harm national security by leaking classified defense material.
The new measure, authored by Senate intelligence committee chairman Rep. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would subject government employees to up to three years in prison for willfully disclosing nearly any classified information. Conyers added that past revelations, such as the CIA's support of the 1973 coup in Chile or Nixon's support of Pakistan in its 1971 war with India, would have led to criminal prosecution. The bill is H.R. 4392. On the grounds that it was requesting too much information, The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., was denied a request for statistical arrest and conviction information from the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System. Despite never requiring the agency to prove an invasion of a single individual's privacy, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that surrendering such a large amount of information to the newspaper would necessarily invade someone's privacy.