Group Seeks Info On Delayed Integrity Plan

The nonprofit activist group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has filed a lawsuit against the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, claiming that OSTP is withholding information related to its long-delayed policy on scientific integrity. In a March 2009 executive memo, President Obama directed OSTP to come up with a scientific integrity plan within 120 days. OSTP has yet to release the plan. In August, PEER filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking OSTP for a copy of draft recommendations developed by an interagency panel on scientific integrity, as well as official position papers from participating federal agencies. OSTP responded in September that it was “still in the information-gathering phase.” PEER filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in mid-October, seeking the requested documents from OSTP. “Why is the development of transparency policy cloaked in secrecy?” asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “The public should know which agencies oppose a presidential directive and why.”