Update 8/29/07

The OPEN Government Act, providing the first Freedom of Information Act reform in 11 years, passed the Senate by a unanimous consent voice vote Friday night after being held up for two months by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ.

The vote came after a series of negotiations between Kyl’s staff and that of the sponsors, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, and John Cornyn, R-Tx. Representatives of the Sunshine in Government Initiative participated in one, two hour discussion with the amendment drafter and an aide to Sen. Leahy. There were a number of follow up phone conversations. Sen. Kyl initially objected, as did the Justice Department, to the definition of the media for fee waiver purposes, to a measure restoring the recovery of attorneys fees (changed by a 2001 court ruling), to the penalty provision if an agency fails to meet the 20-day response time, to the creation of an ombudsman, and to a section calling for reporting on Critical Infrastructure Information. The compromise made changes to the first three in ways we do not believe harmful. The penalty provision was changed to match that in the House bill, which we thought more practical. The ombudsman provision, as negotiated, primarily adds language to the Leahy-Coryn bill that puts into statute the requirement that each agency have a chief FOIA officer and a public liaison. Those were established by presidential executive order last year. The CII section is not really related to FOIA reform but is something Sen. Leahy felt strongly about. It is not in the House bill and we did not object to its being dropped. What’s next: The best scenario is that the House accept the Senate version, and we’ll be talking with folks about that during the August recess. Otherwise, it will go to conference to work out the differences. Either way, we believe we’ll see the bill going to the president soon. I’ve attached the text of the amendment and its changes to S849, along with an analysis of each. .