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Update 12/17/07

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Update 12/17/07     The Senate unanimously passed the FOIA reform bill late Friday afternoon and sent it on to the House.     We are hopeful the House will take it up and pass it before they recess for the holidays on Friday but that is in no way certain because the conversations between Senate and House broke down before there was agreement. As a result, the Senate sponsors, this time including Sen. Kyl who had initially opposed the bill, introduced a second amended version and hotlined it for full Senate approval.    It adopts several of the House provisions, including the pay-as-you-go language, and a requirement that agencies more explicitly cite any exemptions used to deny a FOIA request.    The bill drops the provision for a citation to FOIA in any bill proposing a new exemption, and it gives agencies 10 days to get a FOIA request to the proper agency component office, if it was initially mailed elsewhere, before the 20-day clock begins. But in the rewrite of that section, it also includes a favorable provision for requesters who do not get a response within the 20-days.   It waives not just the search fees (as provided in the House version) but also all duplication costs.   I’ve attached a synopsis of the bill from Sen. Leahy’s office, along with his statement.   While not perfect, this is a good bill that we believe will help the FOIA requester. We hope the House will approve it in the next several days and not let it lay over to the next session.  News reports, commentary and editorials could help make that happen.   Getting the OPEN Government bill on the president’s desk by Christmas would be a grand holiday gift for open government advocates and all FOIA users.                                                                 * * *   The Farm Bill also cleared the Senate late Friday and will go to conference with the House over the multiple amendments made in the Senate.   No copy of the bill or the language of the section dealing with the Animal Identification System is yet available. We’ve been told that the penalty language making it a crime to “use” any information obtained from system records was dropped but that a non-disclosure provisions remains. I’ll send along a follow-up as soon as we know exactly what’s in the bill.   Pete Weitzel