House to vote on FOIA overhaul legislation

The House is set to vote Wednesday on a series of bills intended to expand the public's access to government documents, in the wake of reports that agencies are not complying with laws requiring open government policies.

The package of legislation includes a bill (H.R. 1309) that would reinstate the legal principle of "presumption of disclosure" for Freedom of Information Act requests, eliminate ambiguity in the 20-day deadline for responding to FOIA inquiries and establish penalties for agencies that exceed the deadline.

The presumption of disclosure clause is aimed at reversing an October 2001 memorandum from President Bush's first attorney general, John Ashcroft, which urged agencies to disclose information under FOIA only after full consideration of the institutional, commercial and personal privacy implications.

In addition, the bill, approved by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, would require agencies to provide people making FOIA inquiries with a tracking number to follow the progress of their request either by phone or Internet.

The measure would install an ombudsman at the National Archives, who would offer guidance regarding rejected or delayed FOIA requests. It includes a provision requiring agencies to pay attorneys' fees when information requests are determined to have been unfairly denied.

In the Senate, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, have introduced a similar bill.

Three other open government measures will be considered in the House Wednesday, covering presidential records (H.R. 1255), presidential libraries (H.R. 1254) and whistleblower protections (H.R.985).

The legislation follows a December 2005 executive order from President Bush aimed at improving the government's response to information requests.

In a statement on the legislative proposals, Justice Department officials said they are "fully committed" to FOIA "as a means to ensure transparent and accountable government, while still safeguarding the interests of personal privacy, national security, law enforcement and business confidentiality."

The department, which shares responsibility with the Office of Management and Budget for helping agencies follow the executive order, "would appreciate the opportunity to review any proposed legislation in light of progress made in response to the executive order," the statement said.

The House is taking up the bills in the wake of several reports criticizing progress on FOIA reforms.

Only one in five federal agencies is in compliance with the 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act, according to a report released Monday. The e-FOIA law required agencies to post key records online and use information technology for proactive releases of information.

The report from the National Security Archive at The George Washington University, found only one in 16 agencies have posted all 10 elements of essential FOIA guidance, only 36 percent of agencies have provided required records indexes and only 26 percent of agencies have provided online forms for submitting FOIA requests. In addition, many agency Web links related to the act are missing or wrong, the report stated.

The report, completed under a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is based on a review of the Web sites of 91 agencies with chief FOIA officers and those of an additional 58 agency components that handle more than 500 FOIA requests a year.

"Federal agencies are flunking the online test and keeping us in the dark," said Thomas Blanton, the group's director. "Some government sites just link to each other in an endless empty loop."

"Public access on the Web to government information is the only long-term solution to the backlogs and delays that undermine the FOIA today," said Meredith Fuchs, the research institute's general counsel. She will testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on "reinvigorating" FOIA.

Another recent report -- this one from the Arlington, Va., Coalition of Journalists for Open Government -- found that agencies have made few, if any, strides on handling requests for public information more efficiently.