Since the founding days of the Republic there has been a constant struggle between the state reserving the right to withhold information from its citizens for their safety, and the public’s right to know the workings of their elected body. In the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, as an example, a letter from General Wilkinson to President Thomas Jefferson was suppressed on the grounding that it would endanger national security. During the Vietnam era the conflict manifested itself with the publishing of the Pentagon Papers, and during Nixon’s time in the Watergate tapes. To resolve this conflict, the government introduced the Freedom of Information act, setting out the conditions under which government records could be revealed.

On this day, October 2, in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Freedom of Information Act, mandating all government agencies to publish certain non-classified records made on or after November 1, 1996 in electronic form. In recognition of the sheer volume of information potentially affected by the act, it also extended the response time for FOIA requests to 20 days from the previous 10.

For such a forward-thinking act, Clinton’s amendment also included a remarkably archaic provision: it required the agencies to set up electronic reading rooms where interested parties would be able to access and browse the materials. With the Internet already in full bloom, no one in the Clinton Cabinet apparently realized the same electronic materials could just be accessed remotely, in the privacy of one’s home or office.