Leahy: Breakthrough On FOIA Reform Bill  

… Bipartisan OPEN Government Bill
Could Clear Senate Before August Recess  

In remarks on the Senate Floor Friday morning, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced a breakthrough in negotiations on the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act (OPEN Government Act) authored by Leahy and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas).    Leahy and Cornyn have been working with Senators over the past few months on moving the bipartisan legislation through the Senate. 

Below are Senator Leahy’s remarks as well as information on the bill.

Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senate Floor
August 3, 2007  

Mr. President, I have good news on another front and am pleased to be able to inform the Senate and the American people that we are close to reaching an agreement that should clear the way for Senate passage of the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act” (the “OPEN Government Act”), S.849, before we recess.  This bill is comprehensive legislation that Senator Cornyn and I introduced earlier this year to strengthen and reinvigorate the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) for all Americans.  The Judiciary Committee favorably reported this bipartisan legislation back in April.    

I especially want to thank concerned citizens who have not sat idly by while some have sought to delay and obstruct Senate consideration of this measure.  Instead, knowing the importance of this measure to the American people’s right to know, they have demanded action and refused to take no for an answer.  That is what led to this breakthrough and to the commitment of Senate opponents of our FOIA bill to come around.

I ask that my full statement be included in the Record and will have more to say on this important subject when the Senate does consider and pass the OPEN Government Act later today.

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As the first major reform to FOIA in more than a decade, the OPEN Government Act would help to reverse these troubling trends and help to begin to restore the public’s trust in their government.  This bill also improves transparency in the Federal Government’s FOIA process by:

• Restoring meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA;
• Imposing real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline;
• Clarifying that FOIA applies to government records held by outside private contractors;
• Establishing a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies; and
• Creating a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA requestors and federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly litigation.

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