Leahy, Cornyn Celebrate Sunshine Week With FOIA Legislation
WASHINGTON (Tuesday,
March 17, 2009) – Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn
(R-Texas) on Tuesday partnered again to introduced legislation to
strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, the nation’s foremost federal
law that protects the public’s right to know what their government is
doing. This week marks the fifth annual
Sunshine
Week, a national observance of the importance of open government and
the freedom of information.
The OPEN FOIA Act
introduced by Leahy and Cornyn would require Congress to openly and
clearly state its intention to provide for statutory exemptions to FOIA
in proposed legislation. The Senate first passed similar
legislation unanimously in 2006, and Leahy and Cornyn introduced the
bill in the last Congress.
Leahy said, “This bipartisan bill builds upon the work that Senator
Cornyn and I began several years ago to reinvigorate and strengthen
FOIA. Too often, legislative exemptions to FOIA are buried within
a few lines of very complex and lengthy bills, and these new exemptions
are never debated openly before becoming law. The consequence of
this troubling practice is the erosion of the public’s right to know,
and the shirking of Congress’ duty to fully consider these exemptions.
Sunshine Week reminds all of us that open government is not a Democratic
issue, nor a Republican issue. It is an American issue.
Democratic and Republican Senators alike have rightly supported and
voted for this bill in the past. It is in this same bipartisan
spirit that I urge all Members to support this bipartisan FOIA reform
bill.”
Cornyn said, “The
OPEN FOIA Act would strengthen the nation’s foremost open government law
by adding new transparency and accountability measures to FOIA. Last
Congress, Chairman Leahy and I were successful in passing the most
sweeping reforms to FOIA in recent history under the OPEN Government
Act. This legislation builds on that success and would shed additional
light on the way our federal government conducts its business. The
bipartisan OPEN FOIA Act will ensure that Congress can't slip
anti-transparency measures into legislation without someone noticing. I
hope this bill will garner support from my colleagues and President
Obama to further our shared goal of creating a more open government that
serves the needs of the American people.”
Leahy and Cornyn are longtime leaders on FOIA issues in Congress, and in
2007, they partnered to author the
OPEN
Government Act. Signed into law
later that
year, the measure made the first major reforms to FOIA in more than
a decade by restoring meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA,
and imposing real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s
20-day statutory deadline. The OPEN Government Act also provided
for the establishment of the Office of Government Information Services
(OGIS) in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The office is charged with reviewing agency compliance with FOIA,
mediating inter-agency FOIA disputes, and housing the newly created FOIA
ombudsman.
Earlier this
month, the President signed the omnibus appropriations bill, which
included $1 million to establish OGIS.
Sunshine Week participants include print, broadcast and online news
media, civic groups, libraries, non-profit organizations, schools and
others.
Leahy and Cornyn have
authored and supported several additional open government and
transparency measures in the Senate. Leahy was installed in the
Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame in 1996, and
on Monday
was awarded the Robert Vaughn FOIA Legend Award. Cornyn has long
been a champion of open government. As Texas Attorney General, he took
ground-breaking measures to increase transparency, and he received the
Sunshine in Government award from the National Newspaper Association in
2007.
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Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,
On Introduction of the OPEN FOIA Act
March 17, 2009
MR. PRESIDENT.
This week, our Nation celebrates Sunshine Week – a time to
recognize and promote openness in our government. At this
important time of year, I am pleased to join with Senator Cornyn to
reintroduce the OPEN FOIA Act – a bipartisan bill to promote more
openness regarding statutory exemptions to the Freedom of Information
Act (“FOIA”).
This bipartisan bill
builds upon the work that Senator Cornyn and I began several years ago
to reinvigorate and strengthen FOIA. Together, we introduced, and
Congress ultimately enacted, the OPEN Government Act – the first
major reforms to FOIA in more than a decade. I thank Senator
Cornyn for his work and leadership on this important issue. I also
thank President Obama -- who was a cosponsor of the OPEN Government Act
when he was in the Senate -- for his deep commitment to FOIA.
President Obama clearly demonstrated his commitment to open government
when he issued a new directive to strengthen FOIA during his first full
day in office.
The OPEN FOIA Act
simply requires that when Congress provides for a statutory exemption to
FOIA in new legislation, Congress must state its intention to do so
explicitly and clearly. This commonsense bill mirrors bipartisan
legislation that the Judiciary Committee favorably reported, and the
Senate unanimously passed, during the 109th Congress
(S.1181). While no one can fairly question the need to keep
certain government information secret to ensure the public good,
excessive government secrecy is a constant temptation and the enemy of a
vibrant democracy.
For more than four
decades, FOIA has served as perhaps the most important Federal law to
ensure the public’s right to know, and to balance the government’s power
with the need for government accountability. The Freedom of
Information Act contains a number of exemptions to its disclosure
requirements for national security, law enforcement, confidential
business information, personal privacy and other circumstances.
The FOIA exemption commonly known as the “(b)(3) exemption,” requires
that government records that are specifically exempted from FOIA by
statute be withheld from the public. In recent years, we
have witnessed an alarming number of FOIA (b)(3) exemptions being
offered in legislation – often in very ambiguous terms – to the
detriment of the American public’s right to know.
The bedrock
principles of open government lead me to believe that (b)(3) statutory
exemptions should be clear and unambiguous, and vigorously debated
before they are enacted into law. Too often, legislative
exemptions to FOIA are buried within a few lines of very complex and
lengthy bills, and these new exemptions are never debated openly before
becoming law. The consequence of this troubling practice is the
erosion of the public’s right to know, and the shirking of Congress’
duty to fully consider these exemptions.
The OPEN FOIA Act will help stop this practice and shine more light on
the process of creating legislative exemptions to FOIA. That will
be the best antidote to the “exemption creep” that we have witnessed in
recent years.
When he recently addressed a joint session of the Congress and the
American people, President Obama said that “I know that we haven’t
agreed on every issue thus far, and there are surely times in the future
when we will part ways. But, I also know that every American who
is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed.
That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming
months, and where we return after those debates are done.”
Sunshine Week reminds all of us that open government is not a Democratic
issue, nor a Republican issue. It is an American issue and a
virtue that all Americans can embrace.
Democratic and Republican Senators alike have rightly supported and
voted for this bill in the past. It is in this same bipartisan
spirit that I urge all Members to support this bipartisan FOIA reform
bill.
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