Column: Government openness beneficial to everyone

Daily Journal

Former Congressman Lee Hamilton long has championed open government.

In an essay several years ago, he wrote:

“The presumption in a free society is that government will operate in the light of day, allowing its actions to be gauged and assessed and its decision-makers to be held accountable to the American people.

“There are limits, of course, especially when it comes to national security, but secrecy too often is used as an excuse to cloak positions that politicians don’t want to reveal or mistakes that bureaucrats would rather cover up or simply to avoid accountability for actions that wouldn’t stand up to public scrutiny.

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