May 17, 2007


TO: The Honorable Harry Reid
528 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax: 202-224-7327

TO: The Honorable Mitch McConnell
361-A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Postal mail drop: May 17, 2007
Fax: 202-224-2499

Dear Senator Reid and Senator McConnell:

The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is the world's largest and oldest 
organization of individual working journalists covering environmental issues. 
Founded in 1990, SEJ consists of journalists, educators and students dedicated 
to improving the quality, accuracy and visibility of environmental reporting. 
Working through its First Amendment Task Force and WatchDog Program, SEJ addressed 
freedom of information, right-to-know, and other news gathering issues of concern 
to journalists reporting on environmental topics.

SEJ urges you to quickly move S.849, the OPEN Government Act of 2007, to the 
Senate floor for its consideration and successful passage.

The bill proposes reforms to the 41-year-old Freedom of Information Act urgently 
needed to help FOIA meet citizens' needs, for timely and comprehensive access to 
government information. Open records provide a basis for responsible citizen oversight 
of what the government is doing, what it is up to. And the wealth of information 
collected by the government at taxpayer expense is an invaluable resource for the 
accurate study of environmental and other concerns.

SEJ members envision an informed society served by excellence in environmental 
journalism. Our mission is to advance public understanding of environmental issues 
by improving the quality, accuracy, and visibility of environmental reporting.

We have been thwarted in our efforts to report what the government does and knows, 
sometimes with serious consequences.

For example, the failure of government agencies to respond to urgent FOIA requests 
in Katrina's aftermath, to give journalists information a desperate public needed, 
magnified the tragic consequences of that hurricane.

Today citizens need to help make informed decisions about climate change, energy 
stores, food and water safety, and the ability of dams, bridges and other 
structures to withstand the forces of nature. They need to assess the adequacies 
of their government to address environment issues.

Citizens cannot learn what they need to know, and we cannot help them, without a 
Freedom of Information Act that works.

We greatly appreciate your attention to our concerns.

Sincerely,

Ken Ward Jr.
Chair, First Amendment Task Force
Society of Environmental Journalists

Staff Writer
The Charleston Gazette
1001 Virginia St., East
Charleston, W.Va. 25301
Phone: (304) 348-1702 Fax: (304) 348-1740


Timothy Wheeler
President, Society of Environmental Journalists

Reporter
The Baltimore Sun
21 Dutton Ave.
Catonsville, MD 21228
Phone: (410) 715-2833, Fax: (410)409-3469