evought's Journal: Whistle Blower Protections and FOIA in House

A number of oversight bills come before the U.S. House this week, including: H.R. 1309, the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007,
H.R. 1255, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007,
H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007, and
H.R. 1362 - Accountability in Contracting Act.

The FOIA changes and whistleblower protections should make hiding illegal domestic spying/wiretapping programs much harder. I am having trouble finding any commentary in favor of the contracting bill. Its provisions for oversight on audit discussions not just final reports might catch problems which get buried by political maneuvering. They also want to make it harder for contractors to get Time and Materials contracts; although I am very much in favor of fixed-price contracts, I have not known the government to agree on requirements beforehand and requirements-drift in software projects can reach obscene levels. This would also seem to rule out XP-style subscription contracts.