{"id":6262,"date":"2007-06-27T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2007-06-27T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=6262"},"modified":"2017-02-14T10:31:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T10:31:05","slug":"congressional-record-open-government-act-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2007\/06\/27\/congressional-record-open-government-act-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Congressional Record &#8211; Open Government Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span class=\"quiet\">Congressional Record<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Senate &#8211; June 27, 2007<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<pre>[Pages S8602-S8603]\r\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office\r\n[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gpo.gov\/\">www.gpo.gov<\/a>]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                          OPEN GOVERNMENT ACT\r\n\r\n  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on July 4, the Nation will celebrate the \r\n41st anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA, landmark \r\nlegislation that has guaranteed the public's ``right to know'' for \r\ngenerations of Americans. Regrettably, the Senate will mark this very \r\nimportant anniversary without having passed the Openness Promotes \r\nEffectiveness in Our National Government Act, the OPEN Government Act, \r\nS. 849, comprehensive legislation that Senator Cornyn and I introduced \r\nearlier this year to strengthen and reinvigorate FOIA for all \r\nAmericans.\r\n  Responsive government and transparent decisionmaking are bedrock \r\nAmerican values. FOIA honors and helps translate those values into \r\npractice, and the OPEN Government Act will help FOIA work better in \r\nserving the public's interest.\r\n  The Judiciary Committee favorably reported this bipartisan \r\nlegislation in April. But a Republican hold is delaying consideration \r\nof this important FOIA reform bill. The Senate Republican leadership \r\nhas also ignored requests to debate this bill on the Senate floor, \r\nneedlessly stalling these long-overdue, bipartisan reforms to \r\nstrengthen FOIA.\r\n  For more than four decades, FOIA's timeless values of openness and \r\ntransparency in government have ensured access to Government \r\ninformation. Just this week, we witnessed the great value of FOIA in \r\nshedding light on a controversial policy within the Office of the Vice \r\nPresident regarding the handling of classified information, with news \r\nreports that a FOIA request to the Justice Department first revealed \r\nthat the Attorney General may have delayed a review into the legality \r\nof this troubling policy.\r\n  Although FOIA remains an indispensable tool in shedding light on bad \r\npolicies and Government abuses, this open Government law is being \r\nhampered by excessive delays and lax FOIA compliance. Today, Americans \r\nwho seek information under FOIA remain less likely to obtain it than \r\nduring any other time in FOIA's 40-plus year history. According to the \r\nNational Security Archive, an independent research institute, the \r\noldest outstanding FOIA requests date back to 1989, before the collapse \r\nof the Soviet Union.\r\n  Moreover, more than a year after the President's FOIA Executive order \r\nto\r\n\r\n[[Page S8603]]\r\n\r\nimprove agency FOIA performance, FOIA backlogs are at an alltime high. \r\nAccording to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, \r\nFederal agencies had 43 percent more FOIA requests pending and \r\noutstanding in 2006 than in 2002. In addition, the percentage of FOIA \r\nrequestors who obtained at least some of the information that they \r\nrequested from the Government declined by 31 percent in 2006, according \r\nto a study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government.\r\n  As the first major reform to FOIA in more than a decade, the OPEN \r\nGovernment Act would help to reverse these troubling trends and to \r\nrestore the public's trust in their Government. In so doing, this bill \r\nis a fitting tribute to FOIA and a wise investment in our American \r\ndemocracy.\r\n  The OPEN Government Act promotes and enhances public disclosure of \r\nGovernment information under FOIA by helping Americans to obtain timely \r\nresponses to their FOIA requests. This bill also improves transparency \r\nin the Federal Government's FOIA process by restoring meaningful \r\ndeadlines for agency action under FOIA; imposing real consequences on \r\nFederal agencies for missing FOIA's 20-day statutory deadline; \r\nclarifying that FOIA applies to Government records held by outside \r\nprivate contractors; establishing a FOIA hotline service for all \r\nFederal agencies; and creating a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA \r\nrequestors and Federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly \r\nlitigation.\r\n  Let me also be clear about what this bill does not do. This bill does \r\nnot harm or impede in any way the Government's ability to withhold or \r\nprotect classified information. Classified, national security and \r\nhomeland security-related information are all expressly exempt from \r\nFOIA's disclosure mandate, and this bill does nothing to alter these \r\nimportant exemptions. Senator Cornyn and I have also offered an \r\namendment to this bill that would preserve the right of Federal \r\nagencies to assert these and other FOIA exemptions, even if agencies \r\nmiss the 20-day statutory deadline under FOIA.\r\n  The OPEN Government Act is cosponsored by a bipartisan group of 13 \r\nSenators, including the bill's lead Republican cosponsor, Senator \r\nCornyn. This bill is also endorsed by more than 115 business, public \r\ninterest, and news organizations from across the political and \r\nideological spectrum, including \r\nthe American Library Association, \r\nthe U.S. Chamber of Commerce, OpenTheGovernment.org, Public Citizen, \r\nthe Republican Liberty Caucus, the Sunshine in Government Initiative, \r\nand the Vermont Press Association. I thank all of the cosponsors of \r\nthis bill for their commitment to open government. I also thank the \r\nmany organizations that have endorsed the OPEN Government Act for their \r\nsupport of this legislation.\r\n  The OPEN Government Act is a good-government bill that Democrats and \r\nRepublicans alike can and should work together to enact. If there are \r\nlegitimate concerns with this bill, those concerns should be openly \r\ndebated and the Senate should promptly pass this legislation.\r\n  Senator Cornyn and I both know that open government is not a \r\nDemocratic issue or a Republican issue. It is an American issue. It is \r\nin this bipartisan spirit that I urge the Senate to promptly consider \r\nthe OPEN Government Act and that I encourage all Senators to support \r\nthis important FOIA reform legislation.\r\n  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a list of the \r\nbill's supporters following my remarks.\r\n  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in \r\nthe Record, as follows:\r\n\r\n   List of Supporters of the Leahy-Cornyn Open Government Act, S. 849\r\n\r\n     Alliance for Justice\r\n     America Association of Law Libraries\r\n     American Association of Small Property Owners\r\n     American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression\r\n     American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)\r\n     The American Conservative Union\r\n     American Families United\r\n     American Library Association\r\n     American Society of Newspaper Editors, Member of Sunshine in \r\n         Government Initiative\r\n     Animal Welfare Institute\r\n     ASPCA\r\n     Assassination Archives and Research Center\r\n     Associated Press, Member of Sunshine in Government Initiative\r\n     Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, Member of Sunshine \r\n         in Government Initiative\r\n     Association of American Publishers\r\n     Bill of Rights Defense Committee\r\n     Biodiversity Conservation Alliance\r\n     Blancett Ranches, Aztec, NM\r\n     Californians Aware\r\n     Californians for Western Wilderness\r\n     Center for Democracy and Technology\r\n     Center for Energy Research\r\n     Center for National Security Studies\r\n     Citizen Action New Mexico\r\n     Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)\r\n     Chamber of Commerce of the United States\r\n     Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, Member of \r\n         Sunshine in Government Initiative\r\n     Common Cause\r\n     Community Recovery Services\r\n     Conservation Congress\r\n     Doctors for Open Government\r\n     DownsizeDC.org, Inc.\r\n     The E-Accountability\r\n     FoundationlParentadvocates.org\r\n     Electronic Frontier Foundation\r\n     Environmental Defense Institute\r\n     Environmental Integrity Project\r\n     Ethics in Government Group\r\n     Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety &amp; Health, Inc.\r\n     Florida First Amendment Foundation\r\n     Forest Guardians\r\n     Friends Committee on National Legislation\r\n     Friends of Animals\r\n     Friends of the Wild Swan\r\n     Georgia Forest Watch\r\n     Georgians for Open Government\r\n     Government Accountability Project\r\n     Great Basin Mine Watch\r\n     Gun Owners of America\r\n     HALT,Inc\r\n     The Health Integrity Project\r\n     HEAL Utah\r\n     The Humane Society of the United States\r\n     Idaho Sporting Congress, Inc.\r\n     Indiana Coalition for Open Government\r\n     The James Madison Project\r\n     Law Librarian Association of Greater New York\r\n     Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin\r\n     League of Women Voters of the U.S.\r\n     Liberty Coalition\r\n     Los Alamos Study Group\r\n     Maine Association of Broadcasters\r\n     Mine Safety and Health News\r\n     The Multiracial Activist\r\n     National Association of Broadcasters, Member of Sunshine in \r\n         Government Initiative\r\n     National Association of Manufacturers\r\n     National Coalition Against Censorship\r\n     National Freedom of Information Coalition\r\n     National Newspaper Association, Member of Sunshine in \r\n         Government Initiative\r\n     National Press Club\r\n     National Security Archive\r\n     National Taxpayers Union\r\n     National Treasury Employees Union\r\n     National Whistleblower Center\r\n     Natural Resources Defense Council\r\n     The New Grady Coalition\r\n     Newspaper Association of America, Member of Sunshine in \r\n         Government Initiative\r\n     No FEAR Coalition\r\n     Northern California Association of Law Libraries\r\n     Northwest Environmental Advocates\r\n     Nuclear Watch New Mexico\r\n     Okanogan Highlands Bottling Company\r\n     OMB Watch\r\n     Open Society Policy Center\r\n     OpenTheGovernment.org\r\n     Oregon Natural Desert Association\r\n     Oregon Peace Works\r\n     Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc.\r\n     People For the American Way\r\n     Project On Government Oversight\r\n     Public Citizen\r\n     Radio-Television News Directors Association, Member of \r\n         Sunshine in Government Initiative\r\n     ReadtheBill.org Education Fund\r\n     Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Member of \r\n         Sunshine in Government Initiative\r\n     Republican Liberty Caucus\r\n     Reynolds, Motl &amp; Sherwood, PLLP\r\n     The Rutherford Institute\r\n     Sagebrush Sea Campaign\r\n     Semmelweis Society International\r\n     Snake River Alliance\r\n     Society of American Archivists\r\n     Society of Professional Journalists, Member of Sunshine in \r\n         Government Initiative\r\n     Southern California Association of Law Libraries\r\n     Southwest Research and Information Center\r\n     The Student Health Integrity Project\r\n     Tax Analysts\r\n     Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive \r\n         Environment)\r\n     Union of Concerned Scientists\r\n     VA Whistleblowers Coalition\r\n     Vermont Coalition for Open Government\r\n     Vermont Press Association\r\n     Western Environmental Law Center\r\n     Western Lands Project\r\n     Western Resource Advocates\r\n     The Wilderness Society\r\n     Wild Wilderness\r\n     Wilderness Workshop\r\n\r\n                          ____________________<\/pre>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crec\/2007\/06\/27\/CREC-2007-06-27-pt1-PgS8602-4.pdf\">https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crec\/2007\/06\/27\/CREC-2007-06-27-pt1-PgS8602-4.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congressional Record Senate &#8211; June 27, 2007 &nbsp; [Pages S8602-S8603] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] OPEN GOVERNMENT ACT Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on July 4, the Nation will&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-1D0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Government-Congress.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6264,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6262\/revisions\/6264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}