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Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007

Press release: “Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) Tuesday introduced bipartisan, revised legislation to increase government transparency and provide the first major reforms to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in more than a decade. The Senate passed an earlier version of the Leahy-Cornyn bill — the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act — and the House has passed a counterpart measure, but efforts to reconcile the two bills were stymied over House concerns about “pay-go” issues…The OPEN Government Act would:

  • Restore meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA;
  • Impose real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline;
  • Clarify that FOIA applies to government records held by outside private contractors;
  • Establish a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies;
  • and Create a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA requestors and federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly litigation.
  • Related postings on FOIA

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