Restoration of Freedom of Information Act of 2003
Key claim: The bill would exempt voluntarily submitted critical infrastructure vulnerability records from FOIA disclosure if the provider designates them as confidential and does not customarily make them public.
Abstract
(HR2526 · 108th Congress) Restoration of Freedom of Information Act of 2003 - Amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to prohibit a record pertaining to the vulnerability of and threats to critical infrastructure that is furnished voluntarily to the Department of Homeland Security from being made available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act if: (1) the provider would not customarily make the record available to the public; and (2) the record is designated and certified by the provider as confidential and not customarily made available to the public. Prohibits other Federal agencies in receipt of such a record furnished to the Department from making the record publicly available. Allows a provider to withdraw the confidential designation of a record at any time. Latest action (2003-07-02): Referred to the Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census.
Why this matters
The bill sits at the intersection of transparency law and critical infrastructure protection: broader FOIA exemptions encourage private-sector sharing of vulnerability data with DHS but reduce public and journalistic oversight of infrastructure risks. Narrowing the exemption to voluntarily submitted, provider-designated confidential records would recalibrate that trade-off. Because the proposal was never enacted, its practical significance is primarily as a marker of the ongoing debate over how much protected space federal law should give industry-submitted security information.