[NYTr] House Poised to Pass FOIA Reform; Measure Cleared Senate Dec 14

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

National Security Archive Upfate - Dec 18, 2007
http://www.nsarchive.org

House Poised to Pass FOIA Reform Bill; Measure Cleared Senate
December 14

Bill Provides Common Sense Solutions for Openness Problems:

Penalties for Delays, Tracking Systems for Requests, Ombuds-style
Office to Mediate Disputes, Better Agency Reporting

Reforms Recommended by Archive Audits and Testimony

For more information contact:
Thomas Blanton / Meredith Fuchs / Kristin Adair: 202/994-7000

Washington, DC, December 18, 2007  The House of Representatives
will vote today on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill
(S. 2488) that passed the Senate by unanimous consent on December
14.  The bill aims to fix some of the most persistent problems in
the FOIA system, including excessive delay, lack of responsiveness,
and litigation gamesmanship by federal agencies.  If passed by the
House today, it will be sent to the Presidents desk for approval.

Our six government-wide audits of FOIA performance show that these
bipartisan changes to the Freedom of Information Act are common
sense solutions, remarked Meredith Fuchs, general counsel of the
National Security Archive.  This bill establishes tracking systems
for FOIA requests like FedEx uses for packages, actually penalizes
agencies for the first time for delays that our audits found could
reach 20 years, and sets up an office to mediate disputes as an
alternative to litigation.

The bill in front of the House today represents a bipartisan effort
that has stretched over several years, spearheaded by Senators
Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), the original co-sponsors
of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ),  and
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA).  Efforts to amend the FOIA have
faced stumbling blocks in part because of strong administration
opposition to passage of earlier versions of this FOIA reform bill
in both the House and the Senate.

This is the bill that President Bush wrote an executive order to
try to prevent, said Tom Blanton, director of the Archive, referring
to E.O. 13392 (December 14, 2005), which called for a citizen-centered
and results-oriented approach to FOIA, established Chief FOIA
Officers at each of 92 major agencies, and required agencies to
evaluate their FOIA programs and draft improvement plans.

The new law would mandate tracking numbers for FOIA requests that
take longer than 10 days to process to ensure they will no longer
fall through the cracks, require agencies to report more accurately
to Congress and the public on their FOIA programs, create a new
ombuds office at the National Archives to mediate conflicts between
agencies and requesters, clarify the purpose of FOIA to encourage
dissemination of government information, and provide incentives to
agencies to avoid litigation and processing delays.

Congress is acting to improve the FOIA for the first time in more
than a decade, since the electronic FOIA amendments of 1996, but
Congressional and public oversight will be essential for the laws
success, Blanton noted.  Our Knight Open Government Survey in 2007
found that only one in five federal agencies fully complied with
the 1996 law, even after 10 years of implementation.

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THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental
research institute and library located at The George Washington
University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes
declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no
U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication
royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.