Greasing FOIA skids

Celebrating the concept behind the annual Sunshine Week, U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, renewed efforts to advance legislation to improve agency compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

The so-called Faster FOIA Act would set up an advisory panel to study agency backlogs in processing FOIA requests. This Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays would recommend legislative and/or administrative actions to speed up the process, which has resulted in many FOIA requests languishing for years.

In addition, the commission would study whether the system for charging fees and granting FOIA fee waivers should be modified.

A National Security Archive survey recently found 12 federal agencies had pending FOIA requests that were more than six years old.

"Senator Cornyn and I first introduced the Faster FOIA Act in 2005 to address the growing problem of excessive FOIA delays within our federal agencies," Sen. Leahy said. "The Faster FOIA Act will help ensure the dissemination of government information to the American people, so that our democracy remains vibrant and free. As we commemorate Sunshine Week, I join all Americans in celebrating an open and transparent government."

The bill was reintroduced in 2010. The Senate unanimously passed it, but it failed to clear the House.

The senators recognize that Americans are not subjects of their benevolent Washington rulers, but, as voters, are sovereign individuals who exercise their rights and make decisions based on trustworthy and freely available information. A government that hided its actions from its citizens is like an employee refusing to tell his boss how the job is going.

As Thomas Jefferson once said, "An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will."