The Secrecy File (US)

Senate gives FOIA overhaul green light

By Rebecca Carr | Friday, December 14, 2007, 08:20 PM

The Senate unanimously approved legislation tonight that would strengthen the much beleaguered Freedom of Information Act.

The passage of legislation, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, was seen as a "break through" by the open government community.

An earlier attempt to overhaul the 41-year-old law has been stalled since August over disagreements between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

The Senate's latest bill is an attempt to iron out those differences.

"Senator Cornyn and I have worked with our partners in the House for months in our joint efforts to make important reforms to the Freedom of Information Act before the end of this year," Leahy said.

Cornyn, who has made it his mission to make Washington more accountable and transparent, said he was encourage by the Senate action.

"It's encouraging to see this important effort to expand open government move another step forward," Cornyn said. "I'll continue working with Chairman Leahy and our colleagues until these reforms are enacted into law."

Leahy and Cornyn hope that the House Democratic leadership will approve the new version of the bill so that the legislation can be sent to the White House this month.

Despite the expected opposition from the Justice Department, open government groups were elated.

"In recent weeks, House and Senate negotiators worked diligently to resolve obstacles while retaining significant FOIA improvements," said Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of ten media groups. "We encourage the House of Representatives to quickly pass this important open government legislation."

The OPEN Government Act, as it is called, makes "simple, common sense reforms" to the way federal agencies process requests for documents under FOIA, Blum said.

The bill creates an independent ombudsman to resolve citizen disputes and help agencies strengthen FOIA; creates tracking systems so the public can easily track the status of requests; and lets requesters more easily recover legal costs when agencies improperly deny requests.

 
 

Inserted from <http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/washington/secrecy/entries/2007/12/14/senate_gives_foia_overhaul_gre.html>