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The FOIA and President Lyndon Johnson
On July 4, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson reluctantly—see his statement
below identifying the tension between protection and dissemination of information—signed
into law the Freedom Of Information Act. This landmark legislation
enshrined in law the public’s right of access to federal government records.
The bill that Johnson signed was the effort of several legislators, principal
among them US Rep. John Moss (D-CA), a leading consumer advocate, who had
begun his crusade of investigations, reports and hearings on government
information policy in 1955. Officially, the statute superseded Section
3 of the Administrative Procedures Act, the provision for regulation of
government information. Below are links to documents highlighting
the legislative and political history of the initial FOIA.
Note: The following documents are in PDF format.
You will need to download and install the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view.
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