| 05/17/2005
Congress
urged to make government more responsive to freedom-of-information
requests
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Nearly 40 years after it opened up government records
to public scrutiny, the Freedom of Information Act needs reworking
to ensure the flow of information is not blocked by reluctant
bureaucrats or an overly secretive government, a House panel
was told May 11.
Media witnesses joined lawmakers in saying that there was
a growing tendency for FOIA requests to go unanswered for
months or years, be rejected, or come back with large areas
blacked out.
There's no known record of a government employee being fired
or disciplined for failing to respond to a FOIA request, Mark
Tapscott, director of the Heritage Foundation's center for
media and public policy, told a House Government Reform subcommittee.
"There are consequences but usually it's because they
provide too much information."
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Carl Nichols, whose office
handles FOIA-related litigation, defended the government's
policies, saying it spends $300 million a year to answer 4
million FOIA requests and has taken expansive steps to improve
government transparency and responsiveness.
He said abiding by the rule that agencies get back to requesters
within 20 working days on the disposition of their requests
was "simply not possible" in cases of massive database
requests.
But Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers Inc. and chairman
of the Newspaper Association of America, said there also appears
to be an increased bias away from openness and toward secrecy.
He pointed to a memo written by former Attorney General John
Ashcroft in 2001 in which he suggested agencies should not
release information when there was any uncertainty about whether
any FOIA exemptions applied, such as for national security
and law enforcement material.
"It's
made it much, much easier for folks to say no," Smith
said.
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the committee,
also spoke of a "disturbing new trend of agencies relying
on undefined new pseudo-classifications to protect information
from public disclosure." He noted that the Defense Department
phone book was now classified "for official use only."
Several lawmakers, including Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and
John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, have
introduced bills that would tighten FOIA compliance deadlines,
levy penalties on agencies that miss deadlines and set up
a government ombudsman office to monitor compliance.
A Government Accountability Office analysis of FOIA requests
showed wide disparities among federal agencies. While 90 percent
of requests made in 2004 were granted, three agencies handling
more complex or security-related matters -- the State Department,
the CIA and the National Science Foundation -- made full grants
of requested records less than 20 percent of the time.
___
The FOIA bills are S. 394 and H.R. 867.
___
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Sunshine in Government Initiative: http://www.sunshineingovernment.com/
|
