The Congress: Bureaucracy Unbound

As a freshman Congressman from California, Democrat John Emerson Moss Jr. sought some information from the U.S. Civil Service Commission—and was turned down. A quiet but combative former businessman, Moss complained to fellow Representatives, discovered that they too were being denied routine requests for facts by federal agencies. Appalled at such self-serving censorship by a Government that supposedly serves the people, Moss determined to do something about it.

That was in 1953. Last week, Moss's unremitting campaign to open bureaucratic files finally paid off. By a roll-call vote of 307 to 0, the House passed a bill that goes farther...

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