SGI Senate approves detainee photos ban, Open FOIA Act

Congress exempts Detainee Photos from FOIA, passes Open FOIA Act

(PDF)

Statement of the Sunshine in Government Initiative
upon Senate Approval of the Homeland Security Appropriations conference report

The Sunshine in Government Initiative is disappointed that Congress carved out an exception to FOIA to allow the Department of Defense to withhold hundreds of photographs documenting the treatment of detainees held by U.S. forces. With this action, Congress has cut litigation short -- despite two court rulings requiring disclosure of the photographs -- and drilled one more hole in FOIA and added to the more than 240 exemptions written into law.

At the same time, we applaud the Senate – particularly Senators Patrick Leahy and John Cornyn -- for adopting statutory language requiring future exemptions to FOIA to mention the subsection of FOIA -- 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(3) -- that permits them. The Open FOIA Act gives the public a better chance of finding and debating these proposed exemptions when proposed in legislation.

The Administration and Congress should build on the Open FOIA Act and do more to protect the Freedom of Information Act from harmful, overbroad cuts. While we are disappointed that potentially valuable information will not be disclosed, we remain hopeful that better disclosure of proposed exemptions will help protect FOIA.

We look forward to working with Congress, the administration and others to further preserve and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act.

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