Can Republicans and Democrats work in a bipartisan manner to ensure that federal agencies are following the Freedom of Information Act?
Darrell Issa, the new Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, certainly appears to have begun examining ways to improve the FOIA system. On 25 January 2011, he sent a letter to 180 federal agencies and offices informing them that, “FOIA is one of the most important tools for government transparency and accountability…Without FOIA, [US citizens] could not hold the government accountable.” Issa also noted that “President Obama recognized the importance of FOIA when he made it the subject of an executive memorandum on his second day of office.”
Issa then stated that the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform was acting “to ensure[] that all federal agencies respond in a timely, substantive, and non-discriminatory manner to requests for information under FOIA.” He instructed the agencies to provide the Committee their FOIA logs for the past five years –as well as additional FOIA data– by February 15, 2011 at 5:00 PM!! Boy, do we at the Archive wish we could get FOIA turnaround speeds like that! (more…)
