Let the Sun Shine (Kyl R-AZ holding up Openess and Sunshine in Gov Act)

[UpInArms]

Source: NYT

Freedom of Information requests have been caught in the gears for decades, and journalists working on timely stories about lead in school lunch boxes, FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina and delays in the delivery of veterans’ benefits have all been stymied by agencies that flout the law through recalcitrance or ineptitude.

A recent survey by the National Security Archive, a private research group at George Washington University, found that five federal entities — the State Department, the C.I.A., the criminal division of the Justice Department, the Air Force and the F.B.I., all had some requests that were more than 15 years old.

<snip>

Both bills try to reduce the backlog of requests under the Freedom of Information Act by mandating that missing the 20-day statutory deadline would result in consequences for the stonewalling agency. The bills also call for an ombudsman to settle disputes and would establish a Freedom of Information hotline to track requests.

<snip>

But for the time being, the bill in the Senate is going nowhere, and it is only fitting that it ended up in a cul-de-sac in June by way of something called a “secret hold,” a process by which a sitting senator need only raise an anonymous objection to stymie a bill.

For a time, no one knew who the secret senator was, but in May, the Society of Professional Journalists polled the Senate and soon discovered that Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, had put a hold on the bill, in part because of “grave concerns” raised by the Justice Department in a 13-page letter sent to Senator Leahy on March 26. (Senator Leahy’s staff has since met with the Department of Justice and amended the bill to reflect some of its concerns.)

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/business/media/23carr.html?ei=5088&en=18e38de3dfd115f3&ex=1342843200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

[struggle4progress]

1. Jon Kyl wants to "Put it where the sun don't shine"