The Sunshine Project
News Release
4 September 2003
Texas Attorney General Rules for Biodefense TransparencyAustin, 4 September - The Texas Attorney General has ruled in favor of the Sunshine Project in its Public Information Act request for information on the University of Texas Medical Branch's application to the National Institutes of Health for a Regional Center of Biodefense Excellence (RCE). Filed on June 2nd, the Project's request was for the University's RCE application. The University of Texas Medical Branch sought to deny release of the application, in its entirety.
In a brief to the Texas Attorney General, the University of Texas Medical Branch claimed five different legal exemptions prevented release of the requested information, including provisions of the Texas Homeland Security Act (HB 9). In its ruling (OR2003-6103, 29 August), the Attorney General's office rejected four of UTMB's arguments in their entirety, including the Homeland Security claim.
One exemption UTMB asserted, related to intellectual property, was accepted; but the Attorney General ruled that it is only applicable to a small portion of the Biodefense RCE application.
UTMB must either accept the Attorney General's ruling, or sue in a Travis County (Austin) court.
A brief in support of the Sunshine Project was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (www.aclutx.org).
The Attorney General's decision sets the stage for another important ruling, due on or before September 22nd, related to the Sunshine Project's request for documents from the UTMB Institutional Biosafety Committee. That dispute is presently also the subject of an investigation by the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities. For more infomation on that case, please see
http://www.sunshine-project.org/biodefense/utmb.html
Today, the National Institutes of Health awarded UTMB the Regional Center of Excellence Grant.
For more information, please contact Edward Hammond at 512-494-0545 or hammond@sunshine-project.org