Administrative Law: A Research Paper on Government in the Sunshine Act

The constitutional basis of the act is so that Congress can control the procedures of agencies it has created. Going further than that, the people are the foundation of power and the government should be held accountable for the actions taken on behalf of its people. “The Government in the Sunshine Act was the last in a quartet of “open government” statues that included the Freedom of Information Act in 1966, the Federal Advisory Committee Act in 1972, and the Privacy Act in 1974.Senator Lawton Chiles of Florida was the first to introduce a bill that would eventually evolve into The Government in the Sunshine Act. The bill was passed nearly unanimously and signed into law on September 13, 1976.