chAPTeR eleven • The BuReAucRAcy 261
Government in
the Sunshine Act
A law that requires all
committee-directed federal
agencies to conduct their
business regularly in public
session.
Sunset Legislation
Laws requiring that
existing programs be
reviewed regularly for
their effectiveness and
be terminated unless
specifically extended as a
result of these reviews.partisan elections, participate in voter-registration drives, make campaign contributions to
political organizations, and campaign for candidates in partisan elections.modeRn ATTemPTs
AT BuReAucRATIc ReFoRm
As long as the federal bureaucracy exists, attempts to make it more open, efficient, and
responsive to the needs of U.S. citizens will continue. The most important actual and pro-
posed reforms in the last several decades include sunshine and sunset laws, privatization,
incentives for efficiency and productivity, and more protection for so-called whistleblowers.sunshine laws before and after 9/11
In 1976, Congress enacted the government in the sunshine act. It required for the
first time that all multiheaded federal agencies—agencies headed by a committee instead
of an individual—hold their meetings regularly in public session. The bill defined meeting
as almost any gathering, formal or informal, of agency members, including a conference
telephone call. The only exceptions to this rule of openness are discussions of matters such
as court proceedings or personnel problems, and these exceptions are specifically listed in
the bill. Sunshine laws now exist at all levels of government.Information disclosure. In 1966, the federal government passed the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA), which required federal government agencies, with certain excep-
tions, to disclose to individuals information contained in government files. FOIA requests
are helpful not just to individuals. Indeed, the major beneficiaries of the act have been
news organizations, which have used it to uncover government waste, scandals, and
incompetence.
For example, a Utah newspaper learned through FOIA requests that an air force
acquisitions officer was engaging in corrupt actions that benefited Boeing Corporation.
In 2012, FOIA requests revealed that Treasury Department officials had been disciplined
for soliciting prostitutes and accepting gifts from corporate executives. Also in 2012, Fox
News obtained documents showing that the General Services Administration (GSA) had
wasted large sums in sponsoring lavish and pointless conferences for its employees.curbs on Information disclosure. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
the trend toward open government has been reversed at both the federal and the state
levels. Within weeks after September 11, 2001, federal agencies removed hundreds, if not
thousands, of documents from Internet sites, public libraries, and the reading rooms found
in various federal government departments. Information contained in some of the docu-
ments included diagrams of power plants and pipelines, structural details on dams, and
safety plans for chemical plants. The military also immediately began restricting information
about its current and planned activities, as did the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These
agencies were concerned that terrorists could make use of this information to plan attacks.sunset laws
The size and scope of the federal bureaucracy can potentially be controlled through
sunset legislation, which places government programs on a definite schedule for con-
gressional consideration. Unless Congress specifically reauthor izes a particular federally
operated program at the end of a designated period, the program will be terminated
automatically—that is, its sun will set.LO4: Evaluate different methods
that have been put into place to
reform bureaucracies and make
them more efficient.Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.