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FOIA bill hijacked for debt-ceiling bill
- By: ASNE staff
- On: 08/03/2011 09:22:00
- In: FOI
The bill had already passed the Senate, so it was an attractive vehicle for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to move his debt-ceiling bill by stripping all the FOIA-related language and replacing it with his proposal.
ASNE and other members of the Sunshine in Government Initiative have been working with Sen. Patrick Leahy. D-Vt., towards passage of the “Faster FOIA Act” (S 627), which would create a commission to “to examine the root causes of FOIA delays” and seek improvements in the law's administration. The bill had already passed the Senate, so it was an attractive vehicle for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to move his debt-ceiling bill by stripping all the FOIA-related language and replacing it with his proposal. We were dismayed when Boehner used this procedural mechanism, and we told the congressional leadership as much in this letter 
, which was designed to get Faster FOIA back on track. Sen. Leahy reintroduced the bill on Monday, Aug. 1, and it passed by unanimous consent in the Senate the same day. It now heads back to the House, where it is presumably safe, at least until our next national crisis. There's more on the Faster FOIA saga and the road ahead on the Main Justice website.
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