Tag Archives: FOIA

• Senate Acts, Bureaucrats Stall on FOIA Requests by Mike Mitchell and JR Santo, ABC News The Blotter, August 20, 2007.
• Still Waiting After All These Years Part I An in-depth analysis of FOIA performance from 1998 to 2006, by the Coalition of Journalists for an Open Government, August 8, 2007
• Still Waiting After All These Years Part II

Continue reading →

Continue Reading →

Freedom of Information Reform Bill Passes Senate, National Security Archive, August 4, 2007. "Open Government Advocates Overcome Secret Hold; Key Reforms Fix Delay Problems Identified by Archive Audits; Better Tracking, Reporting, Processing Fees and Ombuds Office."

After a conference to reconcile provisions between the House and Senate versions, the new law will mandate tracking numbers for FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days to process so they will no longer fall through the cracks, require agencies to report more accurately to Congress on their FOIA programs, create a new ombuds office at the National Archives to mediate conflicts between agencies and requesters, clarify the purpose of FOIA to encourage dissemination of government information, and provide incentives to agencies to avoid litigation and processing delays.

Continue reading →

Continue Reading →

Here is more on the Freedom of Information Act legislation that is stalled in the Senate. (Earlier story: DOJ objects to FOIA bill, Senate HOLD put on bill) An interesting statistic in this article is that only 6 percent of all FOIA requests come from news media -- most come from private concerns and individuals. The bill in question was on "secret hold" in the Senate until journalists polled Senators and discovered that it was Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, who put the hold on the bill. This article also has this quotable comment: "Don't expect a huge uproar if the bill doesn't make it. With an election coming, data secrecy isn't the sexiest issue. But many of those "Holy cow" newspaper articles you read have their roots in the banal bureaucracy of government information."

• Let the Sun Shine, by David Carr, New York Times July 23, 2007

Excerpts:

We live in a nakedly transparent age. Celebrities live out loud, companies routinely have their business spilled all over the Web and anybody can find out an awful lot about you or me with a click of the mouse. Not so in Washington, however, where the mechanism for releasing information has all but ground to a halt. ...Almost everyone seems to realize that more sunlight is needed. A bill to bring the government into the same century as its citizens has picked up massive support across a broad spectrum, but has yet to reach the Senate floor for a vote because it is impaled on the obstinacy of a single senator. ...The bills are not intended to open the government kimono any further (this being a very security-conscious age), but simply to make agencies meet the requirements of long-standing mandates.

If you can't reach the above link, another copy of the article is here at Media Channel. Continue reading →

Continue Reading →

Congress is on the verge of mandating that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are tracked, deadlines enforced and agencies penalized for delays, but the Bush administration and the Department of Justice (DOJ) oppose the bill and the bill in now on hold. Freedom of Information delays drag on for years But Republicans blocking measure to fix 1966 law By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY, July 18, 2007, Page 4A.

Following easy passage by the House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, the FOIA fix has been halted. Despite recent reports detailing delays and difficulties in getting government information, the Department of Justice has objected to the new legislation. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is blocking it under Senate rules that allow any senator to place a "hold" on a bill.

Continue reading →

Continue Reading →