Reform of information act overdue

The information generated by the federal government is the work product created on our behalf. Certainly, taxpayers paid for it. But federal agencies are notoriously dismissive of requests by the public for information under the Freedom of Information Act. In the 40 years since the act was initially passed, the government's responsiveness has slowed to a bureaucratic crawl.

Despite the terms of the law that direct federal agencies to provide a preliminary response to any request for documents within 20 days and fulfill it within a reasonable time, some agencies have outstanding requests that are more than 15 years old. Others deny requests for the most outlandish of reasons. In one example from 2002 in the New York Times, the National Zoo in Washington refused to provide the medical records for a giraffe because it said that to do so would violate the animal's privacy rights.

The Bush administration has encouraged this kind of intransigence. John Ashcroft, President Bush's first attorney general, issued a memo early in his tenure that urged federal agencies to resist FOIA requests whenever possible.

But thanks to the dogged efforts of a bipartisan group of lawmakers, many of these long-standing problems finally have been addressed. Congress has passed the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act, a bill that would put some teeth in the rules that currently govern FOIA. It is now awaiting the president's signature.

The vital reforms contained in the bill include penalties to agencies that don't meet the 20-day initial response time limit, a new electronic tracking system that assigns each request an individualized tracking number to make it easier to determine the status of a request, and clarifying that FOIA applies to government records even when they are held by outside contractors.

The bill also would create a new ombudsman's office, providing an avenue other than litigation to resolve FOIA disputes.

The importance of this legislation cannot be overstated. Certainly the media would benefit from having more timely access to government records. But the biggest beneficiaries would be average citizens. The news media accounts for just 6 percent of FOIA requests.

The White House refuses to say whether the president is favorably inclined to sign the bill. It wouldn't be out of character for this president, who has such a penchant for government secrecy, to stand in the way of these reforms. That would be unfortunate, and if it happens Congress should override his veto.

[Last modified December 26, 2007, 21:51:03]