Three-legged pigeons are rare, but only slightly more so than unanimous votes in the House of Representatives on major legislation. Even so, the House voted 410-0 earlier this week to approve the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014. The bill is the joint handiwork of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and ranking minority member Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat. Issa and Cummings have gone hammer-and-tongs at each other on numerous occasions in recent years, but the importance of government transparency is something on which they very much see eye to eye.

The FOIA was first adopted in 1966, and it is the essential building block in making sure every citizen has access to all federal documents, subject only to reasonable exceptions like national security, protection of commercial secrets and personal privacy. The law is too often followed more in spirit than in letter by federal officials, but millions of FOIA requests are fulfilled every year. And they often make it possible for taxpayers to know things that are essential to their ability to hold public officials accountable.