Senators seek federal transparency, 'reporter's shield'

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders at a Wednesday hearing cited a handful of recent political controversies that benefited from federal open-government laws but said improvements to the statutes could have made a bigger difference.

Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the scandal unfolding over the Justice Department's firing of federal prosecutors, as well as the uproar stemming from last week's inspector general report on the FBI's use of a secret subpoena power in anti-terrorism probes, resulted from important government transparency efforts.

Nevertheless, he characterized the Bush administration as having "lax FOIA enforcement" and "a near obsession with government secrecy." As a result, the 40-year-old Freedom of Information Act is "facing challenges like it never has before," Leahy said.

Leahy said agencies are operating under a 2001 directive from then-Attorney General John Ashcroft that reversed the presumption of FOIA compliance instituted by his predecessor, Janet Reno. That was the "biggest rollback" of FOIA since its enactment, he said.

A bill that Leahy introduced this week with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, would ensure that the 20-day statutory clock for fulfilling FOIA requests starts running upon the agencies' receipt of the forms. It would penalize federal offices that miss those deadlines.

The measure, S.849, also would clarify that FOIA includes federal records held by private contractors and would establish a hotline for citizens to track their FOIA requests via telephone or the Internet.

"Openness is a cornerstone of our democracy, and FOIA lets us know it's happening," Leahy said.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the committee's ranking Republican, said strengthening laws that shed light on government are crucial. In addition to FOIA changes, he also called for a federal "reporter's shield" law that would allow journalists to protect their anonymous sources.

Specter mentioned the recent trial of former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby in arguing for a shield law. The proceedings were marked by a "heavy intrusion" into journalists' sources and a "parade of reporters" who took the stand in "a highly unusual fashion," he said.

A shield bill was introduced in the 109th Congress and it may come up again this year, Specter's spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Meredith Fuchs, general counsel for the National Security Archive, told the committee that FOIA requests are mounting. She said at least seven departments have requests pending that are more than 10 years old; another seven have five-year-old requests; and 28 have requests dating back one to five years.

Sabina Haskell, editor of Vermont's Brattleboro Reformer, said the problem exists at the state and local levels, too. She said she is frustrated by the "de facto sentiment of secrecy that seems to be appearing at every level of government," and that problem "begins at the top."

AP President and CEO Tom Curley, testifying on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, touted S.849 and said a "strong FOIA ombudsman in the federal government" also could help.

Katherine Cary, a senior lawyer for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, said her boss backs the bill and believes government agencies are "stewards of public trust" and must be transparent and accountable.