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Congress 2007-08

The Freedom of Information Act, passed in 1966, is showing signs of age. FOIA is less reliable, less effective and less timely. In 2007, Congress enacted the OPEN Government Act, requiring federal agencies to strengthen their FOIA operations.


Leahy & Cornyn Push Congress to Be Open About New FOIA Carve-outs

In the days before Sunshine Week, Senators Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), in many respects the generals leading the charge for open government, have introduced the OPEN FOIA Act, which pushes Congress to clearly disclose any legislation that would put information beyond the public's reach through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

With over 30 bills affecting government transparency in the 110th Congress thus far, some provisions would make documents secret without anyone noticing and no public debate. In fact, finding these provisions early enough engage in a discussion about them can be full-time work.

"Either poorly drafted or intentionally stuck in the darks corners of legislation, these ideas need to be vetted carefully," said SGI coordinator Rick Blum. "Some get shot down quickly, others are rewritten to be less damaging. But some still sneak through, I'm sure. The OPEN FOIA Act would help the public at least find these secrecy proposals so we can at a minimum discuss and debate them openly."

2008-03-12


Media coverage of budget proposal to end the Ombudsman

UPDATED SGI Coordinator Rick Blum speaks on the National Archive's Office of Government Information Services -- the FOIA ombudsman -- on FAIR's Counterspin (Feb. 22)

Brooke Gladstone of "On The Media" speaks with Rebecca Carr of Cox News:

Other media coverage of the ombudsman issue:

2008-02-07


President's budget would end independent FOIA ombudsman -- after 35 days

Buried in the thousands of pages of budget documents released today is a paragraph that would eliminate the newly created independent FOIA ombudsman within the National Archives and assign responsibility for carrying out its functions back to the Justice Department.

SGI today sent a letter to key lawmakers objecting to the proposal.

2008-02-04


President Bush Signs S. 2488 into Law

President Bush on Monday signed the FOIA reform bill, S. 2488 into law. This is a big win for open government and the public. 2008-01-02


Clay lays out case for FOIA reforms on House floor

Rep. William Lacy Clay summarizes the case for FOIA reform before the full U.S. House of Representatives passes H.R. 1309.

2008-08-22


House sends FOIA bill to president

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the FOIA reform bill that the Senate passed last week, sending the measure to the president to sign into law. Read the SGI statement. 2007-12-19


Senate Passes Revised FOIA Reform

SGI applauds the Senate for approving FOIA reform legislation and encourages the House to act switfly. Read more in our statement. 2007-12-14


Hearing on FOIA Amendments (2007)

Rep. William Lacy Clay, Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Archives, Census and Information Policy, posted comments about FOIA from a 2007 congressional hearing.

2008-08-22


Hazardous Secrecy Proposal Re-emerges

The Pentagon is asking Congress to write a law nearly identical to one that Congress rejected last year that would hide information about how the government and private sector are preventing and preparing for accidents and other releases of chemical, biological and other hazardous materials.

For more, see the SGI Analysis of Defense Department proposal.

2007-05-03


House Panel Strips Broad Loophole from Defense Bill

The House Armed Services stripped a broad secrecy provision from the defense authorization before approving the must-pass legislation.

H.R. 1585, which authorizes the defense budget for fiscal year 2008, did not include an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act for information broadly "concerning" weapons of mass destruction. 2007-05-31


S. 849 Sponsors & Co-Sponsors

The following senators have sponsored or co-sponsored S. 849, the OPEN Government Act.

Sponsors
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
John Cornyn (R-TX)

Co-Sponsors
(order by date added as co-sponsors)

Russell Feingold (D-WI)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Arlen Specter(R-PA)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Mary Landrieu(D-LA)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Barak Obama (D-IL)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)

2007-07-16


Talking Points on the OPEN Government Act (S. 849)

The OPEN Government Act (S. 849) and its House counterpart, H.R. 1309 (The Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007) make simple, common sense reforms to the way federal agencies process requests for documents under FOIA.

Among their improvements, the legislation:

  • Creates a tracking system and hotline for requesters

  • Restores meaningful deadlines for agency action and imposes real consequences on federal agencies for missing statutory deadlines

  • Creates an ombudsman to help requesters use FOIA and avoid and resolve disputes

  • Ensures that, whenever requesters must sue the government and litigation causes agencies to release documents, the government reimburses the requester’s legal costs

Despite its flaws, the FOIA still is an important tool to keep the public informed. In May 2007 alone the law has helped the public learn that:

  • Construction equipment interfered with navigation equipment at one of America’s busiest airports

  • Safety violations plagued the driver and tanker involved in an accident causing the collapse of a freeway interchange near San Francisco

  • A Defense Department espionage warning that transmitters embedded in unique-looking coins had been planted on U.S. contractors turned out to be a false alarm; the coins were commemorative Canadian quarters

For more, see:

Printer-friendly format

2007-05-31


Press Coverage Update

The Hattiesburg American editorialized Thursday supporting FOIA reform. And Cox Newspapers blogged about it. 2007-05-25


Early Push in House Gave FOIA Reform Momentum

When the House of Representatives approved legislation to reform the FOIA in March 2007, it was the culmination of hard work by the bill's sponsors. On July 26, 2006, Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) held a hearing to outline FOIA's problems. Tonda Rush, who leads the National Newspaper Association, testified on SGI's behalf. Months later, as the session of Congress was winding down, on September 27, 2006, the House subcommittee approved FOIA reforms.

In January 2007 the FOIA reforms had to begin the process of getting through Congress from the beginning as a new Congress came to Washington. As Congress was hiring staff and organizing its committees, FOIA reform was on the early agenda. On March 8, 2007, a key House committee approved the bill. 2007-08-31


Hold on OPEN Government Act

A "secret hold" had been placed on FOIA reform legislation, stalling its advancement through the Senate, according to a statement released today by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Sen. Leahy urged the Senate leadership to vote soon on S. 849. He noted broad support among news media, public interest and other groups for the legislation. 2007-05-24


FOIA Reform Update

Here's a quick update on FOIA reforms in the Senate:

  • Fri, Aug. 3: The Senate passed S. 849 by unanimous consent. Read SGI's statement here (pdf).

  • In a discussion on the Senate floor on July 31, Senator Jon Kyl and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed hope they could agree to bring the bill for a vote.

  • The OPEN Government Act (S. 849) awaits a vote by the full Senate. Sen. Kyl has objected to several points in the bill.

  • Leahy and Cornyn agreed to alter penalties on agencies that delay. Their agreement comes in response to Kyl's concern that the bill would force the release of law enforcement information. The change would force agencies to reimburse fees to requesters for any delays. This language is identical to a provision in the companion bill that already passed the U.S. House.

  • In March, the House of Representatives passed the bill by an overwhelming margin (308-117).

2007-08-03


Non-Media Support for OPEN Gov't Act

S. 849 has broad support from media groups and others across the ideological spectrum. Letters from more than 100 organizations and the following groups have been sent to Senate leaders.

2007-07-13


House, Senate talks continue to overcome obstacles to FOIA reform

The House and Senate continue to actively pursue improvements to the way agencies fulfill FOIA requests.

Both the House and Senate have approved FOIA reforms & negotiators are actively working to resolve differences between the bills. Whether the differences can be resolved for Congress to approve the reforms by the end of the year are unclear.

Both versions would create a new federal ombudsman to help agencies improve their FOIA operations and help requesters with individual requests, create a tracking system so the public could easily find out the status of requests and improve transparency of agency FOIA operations.

2007-12-12


Media Group Support for the OPEN Government Act

Here's a selection of the many letters and editorials calling for Congress to act on FOIA reform.

Letters

Selected Editorials

[Full List]

2007-07-02