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FOIA bill expected to clear House today

By Rebecca Carr | Tuesday, December 18, 2007, 11:37 AM

The word on Capitol Hill is that the House will vote today on legislation today that strengthens the much criticized Freedom of Information Act.

The House is expected to pass a Senate bill that sailed through without opposition on Friday night (see my post below this one), according to sources from both political parties.

If the House passes the bill, it will be sent to the White House for President Bush to consider. Despite opposition from the Justice Department, the president is expected to sign the legislation into law because of support from conservatives such as Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona.

Open government groups are pleased. This marks the first major overhaul of the 41-year-old law in over a decade. Critics say the law is ineffective because of notoriously long delays and a routine expectation that a requester must take the government to court to obtain public records that belong to the public.

“This bill represents a real reaction against the secrecy of the past several years and shows that Congress is willing to push back and protect the public’s interests,” said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive, a public research library located at George Washington University, which routinely uses the law to obtain historical records related to national security. “We are very hopeful that the House will pass the bill and the president will sign it.”

The legislation, sponsored by Cornyn and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in the Senate and Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., in the House, creates a penalty for agencies who fail to process requests for information within the 20-day time limit; it allows individuals to recover attorney fees if they prevail in court and it creates an ombudsman to settle disputes over what is a public record. Agencies will also be required to explain why they are redacting or blacking out portions of the documents requested.

Leahy said the legislation shows how important open government is to the public.

“By passing this important FOIA reform legislation, the Senate has reaffirmed the principle that open government is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” Leahy said on Friday. “But, rather, it is an American issue and an American value.”

“These amendments to FOIA are important steps forward to improve the process of FOIA and make it more user-friendly,” said Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org, an umbrella organization of conservative and liberal groups concerned about government secrecy.

“They assure requestors that they will be able to hold agencies accountable for the timely processing of requests for information held by the government,” McDermott said. “They affirm the news status of nonprofits who seek information to share with the public and they will also discourage gaming of the litigation process by agencies. We applaud the leadership of Representative Waxman and Senators Leahy and Cornyn in making this happen.”

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