On July 17, 2024, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) joined Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, Dr. Christopher Morten, and Dr. Reshma Ramachandran in submitting an amicus brief in the case of the Center for Investigative Reporting, et al. v. United States Department of Labor (24-880) concerning the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and transparency of government records.
The brief argues against a broad reading of Exemption 4 of FOIA, which “would reduce government transparency and accountability and obstruct valuable into the relationships between public and private entities.” Exemption 4 of the FOIA concerns, “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential.” In the brief, we argue that the government’s interactions with private entities (including agreements) are matters of significant public importance and interest, and access to the records relevant to those interactions are important aspects of research that promotes government accountability.
The amicus brief highlights examples of that research such as KEI’s use of FOIA to obtain HHS and DOD contracts concerning COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and treatments. Our efforts to obtain copies of the COVID-19 contracts allowed us to gain insights into, “what stipulations and flexibilities federal agencies employed in allocating billions of dollars in taxpayer funding to companies to incentivize the development of urgently needed health technologies.” This included analysis of key agreement terms as companies were able to bypass Bayh-Dole Act safeguards through entering into Other Transactions Authority agreements.
In Center for Investigative Reporting v. Department of Labor, a broad reading of the Exemption 4 reading would be highly detrimental to KEI’s transparency work through FOIA and would undermine the purpose of the Act, shedding light on government actions for public scrutiny.