Senate-Passed FOIA Improvement Act Clears House of Representatives 

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today issued the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FOIA Improvement Act to improve government transparency. 

“The people ought to have a right to know what their government is up to.  A more transparent government leads to a more accountable government. But I’ve seen time and again the lengths the executive branch will go to keep its activities out of public view, where it can’t be scrutinized.  That’s why the FOIA Improvement Act was the first bill I led through the Senate Judiciary Committee as chairman.  It establishes a presumption of openness in government.  Simply put, if the government wants to keep something from the people, it had better have a darn good reason.

“The President’s administration has failed miserably to make good on his pledge to have the most transparent administration in our nation’s history.  With only a few months left in office, he now has an opportunity to take an important step toward his stated goal by signing this important open government bill into law,” Grassley said. 

The FOIA Improvement Act, which passed the House today by a voice vote, clarifies that the government’s default response to Freedom of Information Act requests should be to provide rather than withhold government information.  It places a 25-year sunset on the government’s ability to withhold certain documents that demonstrate how the government reaches decisions, which currently can be withheld indefinitely from the public.  The bill requires agencies to publicly release documents that have been previously released three or more times under FOIA, and empowers the office of Government Information Services to better address FOIA issues through additional independence.  The bill also uses technology to improve the information requesting process.  

The FOIA Improvement Act was reported out of the Judiciary Committee under Grassley’s leadership on Feb. 5, 2015.  It passed the full Senate in March of this year.  It is sponsored by Senators John Cornyn and Patrick Leahy, and is also cosponsored by Senators Coons, Fischer and Tester, as well as Grassley.

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