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Five ways that transparency failures harm our health · U.S. Right to Know articles

Our statement on Sunshine Week for the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship.March 18, 2026The Honorable Joni Ernst, Chair The Honorable Edward Markey, Ranking Member Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship United States Senate 428A Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510RE: Hearing on Sunshine WeekDear Chair Ernst and Ranking Member Markey:Thank you for holding this hearing in recognition of Sunshine Week.U.S. Right to Know is a nonprofit newsroom and investigative research group. We work for transparency and public health. We want to highlight five ways that transparency failures harm the health of Americans.FOIA failings. For more than five years, U.S. Right to Know has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. We do this to help prevent the next pandemic. For this project, we have filed more than 150 FOIA requests. Because the federal agency response has been so sluggish, we have filed 41 FOIA lawsuits.[1]Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 25 million people, including more than 1 million Americans. But the origins of the pandemic remain contested and not fully understood. Americans have a right to know what evidence our federal agencies may have uncovered about the origins of the pandemic. Yet during our investigation, we have met with stonewalling from both the Biden and Trump administrations, and from many federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, National Archives and Records Administration, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.In some ways, this is not surprising. Since its enactment, FOIA has not lived up to its promise.[2]But it is deeply troubling that even the deaths of more than 25 million people worldwide have not been sufficient to compel meaningful transparency from our federal agencies.The American people deserve answers.The continuing failure of the FOIA to provide answers to the American people about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to strengthen the law, so that it does not exist merely as a hollow promise.Reforms should include limiting agencies' use of FOIA exemptions to circumstances where secrecy clearly serves the public interest; and that the Justice Department should decline to defend federal agencies in FOIA litigation unless those agencies can demonstrate that releasing the requested records would clearly harm the public interest. Empowering congressional oversight. During both the Biden and Trump administrations, congressional oversight has often failed to deliver key evidence of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to the public. After so many deaths and so much suffering, this is a grievous failure.Regardless of which party controls the presidency, Congress must conduct oversight forcefully and empower both majority and minority parties to reliably obtain key information from the executive branch, and especially about matters that affect the health of millions of Americans.Dark money brings dark influences on our health. Many of the chronic diseases that afflict millions of Americans – such as obesity, Type 2 diabetes, some forms of cancer and dementia, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety – are shaped not only by biology but also by politics, arising from the influence from the ultra-processed food, tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuel, chemical, gambling and social media industries, among others. According to The Lancet, four industries alone (tobacco, ultra-processed food, fossil fuel and alcohol) “account for at least a third of global deaths”.[3]Dark money – campaign funding where the donor’s identity is hidden from the public – has flooded our federal election system. In the 2024 federal election cycle, more than $1.9 billion in dark money was spent.[4] This spending provides health-harming and other industries with access and influence that the public cannot grasp or track.A healthier America depends in part on understanding how health-harming industries promote their products by obtaining access, influence and favorable public policy from Congress and the executive branch.Requiring disclosure of dark money contributions in federal elections could be a potent remedy, helping the public understand how health-harming industries influence our federal government, and organize to counteract this influence.Bring more sunshine to the swamp. Because the public cannot see the full extent of industry lobbying influence, it is harder to pass laws that promote health but might reduce corporate profits.For three decades, the Lobbying Disclosure Act has provided some transparency to the activities of lobbyists in Washington. But the law has important weaknesses. The definition of a lobbyist is too narrow, disclosures are delayed, lobbying issue areas are disclosed too vaguely and generally, and lobbying support activities are not required to be disclosed. These gaps limit the usefulness of the Lobbying Disclosure Act in tracking how health-harming industries try to cultivate access and influence.It is long past time to strengthen the Lobbying Disclosure Act to bring these activities into the sunlight.Secrecy in our courts. In federal mass tort cases, protective orders in discovery and settlement agreements can pose a threat to our health. When corporations settle product safety or environmental cases, they often demand confidentiality. These agreements seal key evidence — internal studies, safety memoranda, and test results — from public view. The dangers persist, but the people are kept in the dark.In many tort cases involving pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cars, and consumer goods, confidentiality agreements let dangerous products remain on the market for years. The court system, which exists in part to bring facts to light, has become a tool for hiding them.For example, in 2019, Reuters found that “over the past 20 years, judges sealed evidence relevant to public health and safety in about half of the 115 biggest defective-product cases consolidated before federal judges in so-called multidistrict litigation”.[5]Congress should pass a "sunshine in litigation" law to limit the sealing of records in cases that affect public health, including protective orders in discovery and settlement agreements. The public has a right to know lifesaving information, including who is harming our children, and who is poisoning our food, water, air and medicine. Federal courts should expose corporate wrongdoing, not bury it. Federal law should make them do so. These five federal transparency failings – FOIA shortcomings, weak congressional oversight, dark money in elections, inadequate lobbying disclosure and secrecy in court – harm the health and well-being of countless Americans. During this Sunshine Week, and after it, the American people would be cheered to see their members of Congress bring real sunlight to these areas of secrecy and help build a healthier and stronger nation.Sincerely,Gary Ruskin Executive Director<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>[1] U.S. Right to Know, <a href="https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/foi-litigation-on-origins-of-sars-cov-2-gain-of-function-2/">FOI lawsuits on origins of Covid-19, gain-of-function research and biolabs</a>.[2] See, for example, Ralph Nader, “Freedom From Information: The Act and the Agencies.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Vol. 5, No. 1, January 1970, at 2.[3] Anna B. Gilmore et al., “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00013-2/abstract">Defining and conceptualising the commercial determinants of health</a>.” The Lancet, April 8, 2023. [4] Anna Masoglia, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/dark-money-hit-record-high-19-billion-2024-federal-races">Dark Money Hit a Record High of $1.9 Billion in 2024 Federal Races</a>. Brennan Center for Justice, May 7, 2025.[5] Benjamin Lesser, Dan Levine, Lisa Girion and Jaimi Dowdell, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-judges/">How judges added to the grim toll of opioids.</a>” Reuters, June 25, 2019. See also the rest of the Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-courts-secrecy/">Hidden Injustice</a> series, including Dan Levine, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-propecia/">Court let Merck hide secrets about a popular drug’s risks</a>.” Reuters, September 11, 2019. Jaimi Dowdell and Benjamin Lesser, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-lawyers/">These lawyers battle corporate America – and keep its secrets</a>.” Reuters, November 7, 2019. Michelle Conlin, Dan Levine and Lisa Girion, “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-courts-secrecy-lobbyist/">Why big business can count on courts to keep its deadly secrets</a>.” Reuters, December 19, 2019.