Reps. Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings introduced Freedom of Information Act reforms to the House Monday that would force federal agencies to demonstrate why records should be withheld rather than asking requesters to prove why they should be released, among other provisions.
The new reforms are similar to the ones that passed the House and Senate unanimously last year but failed to become law when the 113th Congress ended before both chambers could vote on a compromise measure.
Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and the ranking minority member of the House Oversight Committee, said the FOIA reforms would work toward the “presumption of openness” that Attorney General Eric Holder called for in 2009.
“This bipartisan legislation will strengthen one of our most critical open government laws by bringing greater sunlight to federal agency actions,” Cummings said in a statement Monday. “Agencies should have to justify their actions when they want to withhold information from the American people.”
Last year saw the greatest number of FOIA lawsuits in history as the backlog of unanswered requests grew by thousands in many federal agencies.
“At a time when the American people’s trust in the federal government is at an all-time low, we must strengthen and refine our laws that enable transparency and openness in government,” Issa, a California Republican, said in a statement Monday. “In this information technology driven era, it should be easier, not harder, for citizens to have simpler and broader access to government information.”
Issa stepped down as chairman of the oversight committee at the end of the last session due to term limits and rejoined the House Judiciary Committee, where he is now chairman of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee. He and Cummings introduced FOIA reform to the House during the last Congress.
Proponents of the measure have said such reforms put into law promises that President Obama made in his first days in office, including a famous pledge to make his “the most transparent administration in history.”
The bipartisan FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2015 would compel federal agencies to post frequently requested documents online and establish a single website where people can submit their requests to cut down on confusion.
Other provisions would impose a 25-year limit on how long the government can withhold documents by claiming they were part of a “deliberative process” and would step up oversight of FOIA compliance among agencies.
