The House has passed HR-653, which would establish a presumption that agencies must disclose documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act unless they can show that a specific harm would result from disclosure.
The measure also would require agencies to make information disclosable the law available to the public in an electronic, publicly accessible format; and make available to the public records of general interest that inform the public of the operations and activities of the government or that have been requested three or more times. Also, an online portal would be established so that a FOIA request for records to any agency could be submitted from a single website.
The House passed a similar bipartisan bill in 2014.
The action came as the sponsoring Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report critical of FOIA compliance, stating that backlogs of FOIA claims have more than doubled since 2009, with some requests pending for nearly a decade.
Key findings of the report included: executive branch culture “encourages an unlawful presumption in favor of secrecy when responding to FOIA requests”; agencies create and follow FOIA policies “that appear to be designed to deter requesters from pursuing requests and create barriers to accessing records”; and FOIA requesters “have good reason to mistrust even fair and earnest attempts by agencies to fulfill requests.”
