FOIA reform

Leading experts on transparency issues and representatives of the Obama administration gathered Thursday at American University's Washington College of Law for the "Transparency in the Obama Administration: A Second-Year Assessment" conference. Participants at the all-day event, hosted by the college's Collaboration on Government Secrecy, praised and criticized the Obama administration's government transparency policies.

Despite pledges to bring a new level of transparency to the federal government, the Obama administration has not shown a marked change in how agencies handle Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a report released Thursday by the public interest group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“The most oft-repeated complaint from agency FOIA personnel was being asked to do too much with too little resources,” the report said.

A new financial overhaul law is drawing renewed scrutiny over a provision that some argue potentially insulates the Securities and Exchange Commission from complying with public records requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to pass an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act that is designed to speed up public records requests and investigate the sizable backlog of those still pending.

The bipartisan Faster FOIA Act, co-sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would establish a commission to investigate FOIA backlogs and recommend how to expedite future requests.

The Illinois Senate passed a bill on Thursday that will exempt the personnel records and evaluations of all public employees from the the state's open-records laws if the governor signs it into law, the Northwest Herald reported.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to send the Faster FOIA Act of 2010 to the full Senate for consideration, The Associated Press reported.

The bill would establish a commission to investigate FOIA response delays and would recommend ways to expedite answers for future FOIA requests.

The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill this week that cut the amount of time public agencies have to respond to open-records requests in half, Channel 11 WTOK reported.

If signed by the governor, the bill would amend the state's public-records law, which currently gives agencies 14 days to respond to records requests, to require a response within 7 days.

Journalists, government representatives and Freedom of Information Act experts testified before members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Thursday about FOIA compliance and reform.

High-ranking officials within the Obama administration marked Sunshine Week by touting strides the administration has taken to increase government transparency, but open-government advocates used the weeklong event to point out areas where transparency efforts still fall short.

Senators Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation today that would streamline the request and fee processes of the Freedom of Information Act. The bill was introduced on the first day of Sunshine Week, a six-year-old national movement to promote the importance of open government.

The Faster FOIA Act would establish an advisory panel to examine agency backlogs in processing FOIA requests and making recommendations to improve the process.