FOIA Amended.

Through our discussions in class about FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) I have realized how essential it is to our open, democratic government. I began sifting through new sites to see if any updates had been made to it, since its creation in 1967.

According to, "Freedom of Information Reform Bill Passes Senate," an article on the National Security Archive Web site, a bill concerning FOIA was passed by the Senate, in August. This bipartisan bill was proposed earlier in the year by Democrat Senator of Vermont Patrick Leahy and Republican Senator of Texas John Cornyn. The bill was put on hold by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. A similar bill was passed in the House of Representatives in March of 2007. The bill (S.849) was passed by a unanimous vote, with the amendments that Senator Kyl made to it. The bill made a number of changes to FOIA, including:

• Requests that take longer than 10 days will be tracked.
  
• Agencies must accurately report to Congress.
  
• An ombudsman office in the National Archives to mediate conflicts.
  
• The purpose of FOIA will be spelled out.
  
• Incentives will be offered to encourage agencies to process requests promptly.
  

The bill is somewhat of a response to an audit, known as the Knight Open Government Survey, made by the National Security Archive, that was released in July of 2007. The survey found that FOIA requests in some agencies have been pending for up to 20 years. The survey made it very clear that changes needed to be made, and that FOIA needed to be better enforced. Time will tell if legislation will improve the timeliness of responses to FOIA requests.