Incentives and Consequences Dominate House Hearing on FOIA
Members of a House subcommittee looking at how well the Freedom of Information Act is working kept coming back to a lack of “incentives” and “consequences” to motivate better performance by agencies in response to records requests. Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA), chair of the subcommittee on Government Management, Finance and Accountability, (R-PA) said those weren’t motivating elements commonly found in the federal government. The written testimony of the six witnesses, three from the requester community who urged significant repairs and three from inside government suggesting agencies are doing as well as “might be expected” are linked below. Also linked is a letter of one constituent to the subcommittee and a statement from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) who has filed a FOIA reform bill in the Senate, responding to the Justice Department testimony. (5/11/05)