Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a report last week detailing the vast expansion of secrecy and restrictions in public access to government information under the Bush administration. The Special Investigations Division of the House Government Reform Committee's minority staff prepared the report, "Secrecy in the Bush Administration," for Waxman.

A large sign in New York City, indicating the location of a natural gas pipeline to prevent accidents, was taken down after a website posted a photograph of the sign. John Young, the owner of www.cryptome.org, posts information on his site to draw attention to places needing increased security. Although federal regulations require that the location of natural gas lines be made as obvious as possible to the public for safety reasons, the company that owns the pipeline asserted that local laws allowed the sign's removal.

Testimony from two government officials before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations confirmed that federal agencies are massively abusing their classification powers. The experts estimated that half of the classified information is wrongly restricted. The same week, OpenTheGovernment.org, a diverse coalition of more than 30 organizations, released a Secrecy Report Card quantifying the expansion of secrecy as well as the growing costs to taxpayers.