A new report from the Democratic staff of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee has found that federal secrecy and information restrictions imposed following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are preventing state and local officials from accessing important security information. Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT), the committee’s ranking member, asked for the report to document the information needs of state and local officials and the progress made by the Bush administration in meeting those needs. The staff developed the report from interviews with state, county, and city officials from all across the nation, along with reviews of congressional testimony and a range of independent studies. While the Bush administration has listed information-sharing as a priority in its plan to counter terrorism, the report found significant problems with the systems currently in place. Apparently, there is almost no way for state and local governments to communicate with federal officials, either to get information to them or get information from them. Often, there are no systems in place for states to communicate with each other either. Many officials interviewed identified cumbersome security clearances that take too long as another serious problem. The report asserts that state and local officials “are being asked to fight the war against terrorism with incomplete and unreliable access to one of the most potent weapons in the homeland security arsenal: information.” Since 9/11 the Bush administration has instituted many policies to restrict information access in the name of Homeland Security. Apparently, the administration only views information as a threat and not as a tool. Time and time again the Bush administration has preferred to establish a “need-to-know” system in place of one premised on the public’s “right-to-know.” However, this report reveals that under the Bush administration’s overly restrictive approach to information that even first responders cannot get the information they need. The report makes a number of recommendations, including creating national and regional task forces to coordinate information sharing needs, refining the Homeland Security Threat Advisory System to provide more detailed information, and evaluating federal officials on how well they share information. Unfortunately, the report does not address the information-sharing responsibilities the government has to the public, nor the significant shortcomings of the Bush administration’s policies on this issue.