Security ... think about it!
After 9/11, Davis pushed for changes to open government laws that created an even larger shield for information that private companies gave to the government. Specifically, Davis won protections for companies that run critical infrastructure — such as railroads and chemical plants — allowing them to tell the Department of Homeland Security about dangerous practices without the fear that the public could petition to see the information. David Sobel, a Freedom of Information Act attorney, testified against that provision in 2002, when he worked for Rotenberg at EPIC. “We are discussing the desire of private companies to keep secret potentially embarrassing information at a time when the disclosure practices of many in the business world are being scrutinized,” Sobel said, referring to the overstated corporate profits that were being discovered in 2002. “If a company is willing to fudge its financial numbers to maintain its stock price, what assurance would we have that it was not hiding behind a ‘critical infrastructure’ FOIA exemption in order to conceal gross negligence in its maintenance and operation of a chemical plant or a transportation system?”