FOIA Reform Bill Approved by the Senate
With a late flurry of negotiations before its August recess, senators resolved their differences on a Freedom of Information Act overhaul and passed the OPEN Government Act by unanimous consent.
The bill, S-849, was sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-VT., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, and had strong bipartisan backing. It was voted out of the Judiciary Committee in April, but then held up by Sen. Joh Kyl, R-AZ, who put a hold on the bill, effectively blocking it from moving to the floor for a vote.
Leahy worked out a compromise with Kyl in a series of negotiations in the 48 hours before passage.
The bill is intended to speed up the FOIA process for requesters seeking government documents, now a notoriously slow process plagued by delays and lacking any recourse for those seeking government information. Agencies recently reported a record backlog of unprocessed FOIA requests.
The legislation:
Directs departments and agencies to set up new tracking system so that requesters can quickly determine the status of any request that takes more than 10 days to process.
Creates an ombudsman the public can turn to when unable to reach agreement with an agency on a request. Now the only recourse is an expensive lawsuit.
Makes it easier for the public to recover legal fees when they do sue, if they obtain all or some of the information sought.
Expands the definition of the news media, which have historically been granted a fee waiver on requests.
Provides a financial penalty to the agency for going beyond the 20-working deadline for a response to a request by requiring the agency to forfeit all search and copying fees.
Requires more extensive reporting of FOIA performance to increase agency accountability.
The compromise worked out between Sens. Leahy and Kyl modified the original penalty provision, accepting instead the House approach. The House approved a similar version 308-117. Sen. Leahy also agreed to drop a provision calling for regular reports on the impact of a FOIA exemption granted the Department of Homeland Security for Critical Infrastructure Information.
