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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Bush signs FOIA bill, open government groups applaud

By Rebecca Carr | Wednesday, January 2, 2008, 02:38 PM

Open government groups are pinching themselves today.

Did President Bush really sign legislation that strengthens the Freedom of Information Act for the first time in more than a decade?

Bush%20photo.jpgBush signed the legislation sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., into law on New Year’s Eve with little fanfare. But champagne corks popped today among open government groups.

“Journalists and citizens everywhere can be a little more secure in the health of their democracy knowing the federal government can be held to a higher standard of accountability under this new law,” said Clint Brewer, president of the Society of Professional Journalists. “Unfettered access to the records of government is a cornerstone for a free press, as well as a sound, civil society. The American people have a right to know about the actions of their government, and those actions are most often told through the public record.”

The new legislation is aimed at reversing notoriously long delays for public requests for information. Agencies will now face consequences if they fail to meet the 20-day deadline set in the 42-year-old law.

The new law clarifies that the public can use the law to find out about private government contractors. It creates an independent ombudsman to resolve citizen disputes. It builds a system for the public to easily track the status of FOIA requests and it allows requesters to recover legal costs if they prevail in court when seeking information.

But it does not reverse the infamous memo written by former Attorney General John Ashcroft back in 2001. In that memo, Ashcroft ordered agencies to withhold information if they believed it could harm national security.

Open government groups say the Ashcroft memo gave federal bureaucrats cover for withholding information that should be public, launching an era of growing secrecy.

Still, the measure’s supporters are content with the enactment of a bill that few expected to pass.

Cornynphoto.jpg“I could not be more pleased to see this long overdue legislation signed into law following years of bipartisan efforts,” Cornyn said. The new law holds politicians and bureaucrats accountable in an age of ever-expanding size and scope of government, he said.

“It strengthens our democracy by building on the ideals this nation was founded upon - the people’s fundamental right to know,” Cornyn said.

Leahy, often a critic of the Bush administration, said he was pleased that the bill was signed.

“In a time when government is compiling more and more information about every American, it has become more difficult for citizens to find out what their government is doing,” Leahy said. “These reforms are a ray of sunshine and a turning point toward greater accountability. This is just the first step toward shining light into an administration best known for behind-closed-doors decisions.”

Pete Weitzel, coordinator of the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, said the new law sends a “clear message to the executive agencies to make FOIA and the public’s access to information a much higher priority.”   The bill makes no substantive changes in what is or what isn’t a public record and it does not overturn the Ashcroft memo, despite strong support for doing so, Weitzel said.

But Weitzel said the bill does explicitly take issue with the former attorney general’s directive and with the quality of his legal advice by citing two U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning FOIA: a 1991 case involving the State Department, that established a “strong presumption in favor of disclosure” and a 1976 case where the court ruled that “disclosure, not secrecy” is the dominant objective of the act.

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