Senate Rejects Shift of Ombudsman Duties to Justice
 
The Senate has rejected President Bush’s proposal to move the FOIA ombudsman’s office from the National Archives to the Justice Department.  The President in his proposed budget called for striking the section of the OPEN Government Act creating an Office of Government Information Services and shifting the duties to Justice.  The committee reported resolution, approved by the Senate, rejects that the shift, saying it “would undermine efforts to provide more independence and avoid conflict of interest.”   
The President had signed the OPEN Government Act at the last minute without comment, even though it had been strongly opposed by the Justice Department.  Within weeks, however, he sent his proposed budget to Congress with a provision buried deep in the text to shift funding for an ombudsman’s office created by the law from the Archives to Justice.  He also called for repeal of the ombudsman provision. He did all of this with no mention that it was modifying a new provision of the Freedom of Information Act.  
In a committee report accompanying the budget resolution, the committee said it “rejects the President’s proposal to fund activities related to the recently-passed OPEN Government Act at the Department of Justice instead of at the National Archives.  The President’s request would undermine efforts to provide more independence and avoid conflict of interest in carrying out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA responsibilities.  The Committee-reported resolution assumes that the Office of Government Information Services at the National Archives will be established, as required under the law.”
            Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and John Cornyn, R-TX, the sponsors of the OPEN Government Act, had led the fight to reject that portion of the President’s budget. 
The committee report also includes a statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Leahy, noting that the bill deliberately gave the ombudsman’s duties to an agency other than justice to both establish independence and avoid a conflict or appearance of conflict of interest.