[DRAFT] Sunscreen Act

Pallaith

Pallaith

TNPer
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Recently there's been some new discourse surrounding our FoIA process, but different than what we used to hear previously. People have noted how long and onerous the process of declassifying is, and that there's been precious little of it happening in recent months if not years. This is nothing new of course, but times have changed for the worse when it comes to activity and engagement in the region, and the simple fact is, the burden of these releases gets bigger literally every day that passes. It would take a delegate a significant amount of dedicated focus to make even a dent in the mandated releases, and I think we can all agree having a law that is unrealistic to comply with puts all of us in an awkward situation. I've also sensed a mood shift among our citizens. They still want to get to the bottom of things when they transpire, and the FoIA has been used successfully the last few years to pull information related to ongoing questions or controversies. A mandated release of information after a year, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be capturing the imagination the way it once did. And I would note that the Speaker's office has never, to my recollection, released any bit of information they were mandated to release, despite having a much simpler task than the Security Council or the Delegate.

I say we acknowledge the current reality and retire this unexecuted and overbearing requirement.

Sunscreen Act:
1. Section 7.4 of the Legal Code will be amended as follows:
Section 7.4: Freedom of Information Act:
27. For the purposes of this section "the government" refers to the Delegate and the Executive Officers, including the departments which they oversee, the Vice Delegate and Security Council, and the Speaker's office.
28. For the purposes of this section, “appropriate officers” are those officers responsible for the types of records being requested or released.
29. The Delegate and the designated officers of the Executive are responsible for records related to the Executive.
30. The Vice Delegate is responsible for records related to the Security Council.
31. The Speaker is responsible for records related to the Speaker's office.
32. For the purposes of this section, classified information is that which fits any of the below definitions:
  • Real life information about any NationStates player from which there is a risk of inferring that player's real life identity and which has not willingly been disclosed to the public, including, but not limited to, an individual's name, IP address, physical address or location, phone number, place of employment or education, appearance, social media accounts, and other knowledge about a player, unless the player in question provides explicit consent for this information not to be considered private.
  • Real life information about any NationStates player for which there exists a reasonable real life expectation of privacy or discretion, including, but not limited to, health status, both mental and physical; financial status; personal tragedies; changes in personal status such as marriage, divorce, pregnancy, birth, or death; and other similar information, unless the player in question provides explicit consent for this information not to be considered private.
  • Information that, upon being made public, would jeopardize any ongoing military or intelligence operations; or jeopardize the security of units and agents participating in them, or be harmful to the diplomatic interests, military interests, or security of The North Pacific.
  • Information that, upon being made public, would jeopardize Security Council operations in response to threats and attempted coups.
33. Notwithstanding any process for publication, any information which meets the criteria to be classified will not be released.
34. For the purposes of this section, "government records" are those which are kept on any platform utilized by the government and are open to members of the government and anyone assisting them.
35. For the purposes of this section, “private government records” are those which are kept on any platform utilized by the government and are restricted to only the Delegate, the designated officers of the Executive, and any other individuals granted access by the Delegate; only the Speaker, the Deputy Speakers, and any other individuals granted access by the Speaker; or only the Vice Delegate, the Security Council, and any other individuals granted access by the Vice Delegate.
36. Private government records which reach one year of age will be relocated to the appropriate Declassified Archive visible to residents.
3736. At any time a resident may request the release of any government record or private government record through the appropriate officers.
3837. The appropriate officers will retrieve information requested from the different departments of the government.
3938. Residents who do not receive this information for any reason not specifically designated in appropriate laws or regulations may file a request for the information to the court, where the appropriate officers may present evidence that addresses any claim that release of the information meets one or more of the acceptable criteria for classification.
4039. Information appropriately not disclosed will be accepted as classified by a majority vote of the Court sitting as a three-member panel.
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2. All private government records overdue for automatic release at the time this Act is passed are no longer required to be released and are considered to have never been required for release.
3. All previously released private government records are considered public record and may not be removed from the appropriate Declassified Archive.
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FoIA remains as always, with the updates we did to it, but without the mandatory disclosure requirement every year. Previous records will remain in place, anything that is waiting to be released no longer needs to be, and as far as this bill is concerned, never needed to be. That's just to give the government officials a break so they can't be penalized for their lateness for something we won't even require anymore. I think this takes something off every delegate's plate they never realistically could have gotten done, and allows our officials to spend time on more important things when we need them focused on them more than ever. It also matches the current regional mood.
 
Makes sense to me. We began working on declassifying the logs, and I talked to some deputy speakers about it, but we haven't made time quite yet.
 
As someone who heavily pushed for declassification at various times, it's clear that that was a mistake and rather than improving transparency, it's just become a bureaucratic millstone around the neck of the executive. Full support.
 
From the beginning, mandatory declassification felt more like a weird vehicle for certain petty personalities to attack the SC's credibility based on drummed-up concerns while stringing others along than a solution to any actual problem in the region. We then extended it to the executive later when we should've repealed it. I look forward to fighting over this again when someone else decides that pretending the SC is setting government policy behind closed doors is politically useful. Full support.
 
Cretox:
From the beginning, mandatory declassification felt more like a weird vehicle for certain petty personalities to attack the SC's credibility based on drummed-up concerns while stringing others along than a solution to any actual problem in the region. We then extended it to the executive later when we should've repealed it. I look forward to fighting over this again when someone else decides that pretending the SC is setting government policy behind closed doors is politically useful. Full support.
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You’re right, except SC (and Speaker) were added to the list after the executive had this requirement first.

This doesn’t strike me as a super complicated matter. If someone has some novel tweak they may explore it in formal debate.

I motion for a vote.

@Cosmic
 
Pallaith:
You’re right, except SC (and Speaker) were added to the list after the executive had this requirement first.

This doesn’t strike me as a super complicated matter. If someone has some novel tweak they may explore it in formal debate.

I motion for a vote.

@Cosmic
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Motion recognized, this will now be in formal debate for 5 days, after which, a vote will be scheduled.
 
St George:
As someone who heavily pushed for declassification at various times, it's clear that that was a mistake and rather than improving transparency, it's just become a bureaucratic millstone around the neck of the executive. Full support.
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^ this

A sensible bill.
 
I support this measure. Still, instead of the Sunscreen act, I feel like this depriorotization of needless bureaucratic nightmare could be called the 'Depraetorization Act' but maybe that would make it seem like I have an axe to grind.
 
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