# Fighting Government Secrecy (with Patrick Eddington) **URL:** **By** Patrick G. Eddington, Trevor Burrus **Published:** October 21, 2022 --- The Freedom of Information Act allows us to “watch the watchers”, but it isn’t without cost. ## SUMMARY: The Jones Act biases American shippers and shipbuilders at the expense of international competition, passing higher prices onto consumers and kneecapping free trade. The Cato Institute (and others) have been urging the government to reform this protectionist policy for several years now. But new findings prompt us to ask; how could such an ordinary task for a think tank constitute treason? Cato Institute Senior Fellow Patrick Eddington joins Trevor today to explain how the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) sheds light onto the dark and hidden memos, documents, and recommendations shuffled between bureaucrats behind closed doors—when it can. But how did FOIA come about? What is the process involved? And how do agencies avoid complying with requests? ### Further Reading: [How the Jones Act Sparked Calls of Treason](https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/uphill/how-the-jones-act-sparked-calls-of-treason/) [“Charge all Past and Present Members of the Cato and Mercatus Institutes with Treason”](https://www.cato.org/blog/charge-all-past-present-members-cato-mercatus-institutes-treason) [American Big Brother](https://www.cato.org/american-big-brother): a timeline of many of these First and Fourth Amendment violation episodes over the last 100 years. [FOIA Wiki](https://foia.wiki/wiki/Main_Page)