The Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21 approved the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act (S. 394), a promising development for open government advocates. The bill, sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), would remove hurdles to obtaining information from federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The legislation addresses loopholes that allow federal agencies to delay releasing information to the public under FOIA. Government agencies seeking to withhold information under FOIA have in the past charged exorbitant fees, denied fee waivers, and thrown up a number of other bureaucratic obstacles. The OPEN Government Act will, among other things, allow the public to recoup legal costs from the federal government for improperly withheld documents, establish a tracking system for requests, and create a system to mediate disputes between those requesting information and federal agencies.

A House counterpart, H.R. 867, was introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and referred to the House Government Reform committee in February 2005. The Government Reform Committee is not expected to act on the measure before the end of this session.

In March 2005, another bill sponsored by Cornyn and Leahy, the Faster FOIA Act of 2005 (S. 589), which would appoint a commission to study backlog problems and possible improvements of agency procedures, was reported favorably out of committee. Then in December 2005, President Bush issued Executive Order 13392 that required agencies to develop FOIA improvement plans to reduce backlogs and increase public access to highly sought-after government information. Access advocates have argued that the executive order is unworkable without new resources for the agencies to help speed up FOIA processing.

Even though both Cornyn-Leahy bills on FOIA have passed out of committee in the Senate, it remains highly unlikely, in the limited time left before Congress breaks for elections, that either bill will make it to the Senate floor or out of committee in the House.. Hopefully, the progress made by the bills in the Senate means that action on these bills will be faster in future sessions of Congress.