Openness Promotes Effectiveness in Our National Government Act of 2007—was introduced March 13, 2007, in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.).News Release: “Cornyn Renews Effort To Strengthen Open Government. Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to Reform Freedom of Information Act,”

This Act was signed by President Bush on New Year’s Eve 2007.  This important piece of legislation opens up government documents, transparency, and accountability that has been  since 9/11.    There was very little reporting on the signing, but the AP and the White House both released statements on it.  Interestingly, they both had differing reports.

White House Highlights of the Bill:

(1) establishing a definition of “a representative of the news media;” (2) directing that required attorney fees be paid from an agency’s own appropriation rather than from the Judgment Fund; (3) prohibiting an agency from assessing certain fees if it fails to comply with FOIA deadlines; and (4) establishing an Office of Government Information Services in the National Archives and Records Administration to review agency compliance with FOIA.

AP Highlights of the Bill:

• requires the release of requested documents unless their disclosure would do actual harm
• brings government contractors under FOIA
• compels the government to respond to FOIA requests within 20 days of their receipt
• creates a system by which citizens may track the progress of their requests
• establishes a hot-line service for all federal agencies to cope with problems
• establishes an ombudsman to help resolve disputes about non-disclosure

There is very little in common with what the White House and what the AP highlight.  They also differ on the explanation of the Bill.

White House:

The “Open Government Act” will “help to reverse the troubling trends of excessive delays and lax FOIA compliance in our government and help to restore the public’s trust in their government,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy

The AP:

The new law…amounts to a congressional pushback against the Bush administration’s movement to greater secrecy since the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Bush signed the bill without comment in one of his final decisions of the year…

The legislation is aimed at reversing an order by former Attorney General John Ashcroft after the 9/11 attacks in which he instructed agencies to lean against releasing information when there was uncertainty about how doing so would affect national security.

Buried on New Year’s Eve, barely a peep from any news media, and no comments from the President himself on it.  It was almost as if he felt he HAD to sign it just to keep it buried, because veto’ing it would have attracted more attention.  He definitely didn’t like the Bill with how quiet it was all done.

I only hope this works in creating more transparency, lessening the infighting over documents, and letting the public know what’s really going on.

The AP Article