A bill now moving through the Senate is intended to improve how federal agencies respond to Freedom of Information Act requests for information from journalists, businesses and citizens. Some FOIA advocates are happier about that than others.
“The FOIA Improvement Act sets limits on the ability of agencies to stonewall requesters, which is why the Senate Judiciary’s approval is a move in the right direction for all who have an interest in a more transparent federal government,” said Cause of Action Executive Director Dan Epstein.
“As a watchdog group working on behalf of taxpayers, we support steps to establish greater accountability for agencies that currently hinder government transparency through FOIA,” Epstein said.
Cause of Action is a nonprofit advocacy group that works for greater transparency and accountability in government.
Epstein was referring to a measure co-sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Cornyn is the panel’s fifth-ranking Republican.
Sen. Charles Grassley, presently the committee’s ranking minority member, is likely to replace Leahy in January when the new Republican majority elected earlier this month takes office.
The fact that the bill is being moved along in the legislative process during the lame duck session of Congress is a problem for another FOIA advocate, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“No non-emergency (life or death) legislation should be voted on by lame duck members of Congress, so the bill should be shelved until the Congress that the American people actually voted for is in session,” Fitton told the Washington Examiner Thursday.
“As it stands, my understanding is that the proposed reform is weak tea and does little to close the giant black hole of secrecy that is the deliberative process privilege,” he said.
Fitton was referring to the fifth of nine FOIA exemptions that allow federal officials to deny requestors access to documents deemed to be covered because they were created during the deliberative process preceding a policy decision.
“The deliberative process” is the exemption most frequently cited by federal officials when they deny FOIA requests. The bill now moving through the Senate does not address the issue in a major way.
Go here for more information on the bill.
Editor’s note: Judicial Watch is representing the Washington Examiner in its federal lawsuit seeking access to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau records under FOIA.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
