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WASHINGTON —For the first time since 1992, a Senate panel on Tuesday held an oversight hearing to examine compliance with federal open government legislation. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired a hearing of the subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security as part of an ongoing and bipartisan effort to achieve meaningful reforms to the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA). The panel heard testimony on the need for reform, and discussed the merits of the bipartisan Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005 (OPEN Government Act), introduced last month by Sens. Cornyn and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee. The Cornyn-Leahy legislation (S. 394) is aimed at substantially enhancing and expanding the accessibility, accountability, and openness of the federal government. The bill is supported by groups from across the political spectrum, and representatives of many of these groups testified at the hearing. More information on the legislation is available at: http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/FOIA “I have always been proud that Texas is known for having one of the strongest and most robust freedom of information laws in the country, and it’s long past time to bring a little of our Texas sunshine to Washington,” said Cornyn, who in 2001 was presented with the James Madison Award for his efforts to promote open government by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. “ It has been nearly a decade since Congress has approved major reforms to the Freedom of Information Act, but I hope that today’s hearing will prove to be an important first step towards strengthening our open government laws and reinforcing our national commitment to freedom of information.” “The enactment of FOIA was a watershed moment for democracy but this bulwark of open government is under assault.  Liberals and conservatives both recognize a dangerous trend toward over-classification of information, at enormous cost to the taxpayers and risk to our citizens,” said Leahy.  “The bill that Senator Cornyn and I have introduced is a collection of commonsense modifications designed to update FOIA and improve the timely processing of FOIA requests by federal agencies.” In 1996 Leahy was the principal author of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments, which updated FOIA for the Internet Age. It was the last significant FOIA legislation passed by Congress. Sens. Cornyn and Leahy also introduced the Faster FOIA Act (S. 589) last week to establish an advisory Commission on FOIA processing delays. The 16-member commission would be charged with reporting to Congress and the President its recommendations for steps that should be taken to reduce delays in the processing of requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The following witnesses presented testimony at the hearing: Katherine M. "Missy" Cary , Assistant Attorney General of Texas and Chief, Open Records Division Walter Mears , former Washington Bureau chief and Executive Editor, Associated Press Mark Tapscott , Director, Center for Media and Public Policy, The Heritage Foundation Lisa Graves , Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy, American Civil Liberties Union Meredith Fuchs , General Counsel, National Security Archive, George Washington University Thomas M. Susman , Ropes & Gray LLP  The OPEN Government Act contains more than a dozen substantive provisions, designed to achieve the following four objectives:

1. Strengthen FOIA and close loopholes
2. Help FOIA requestors obtain timely responses to their requests
3. Ensure that agencies have strong incentives to act on FOIA requests in a timely manner
4. Provide FOIA officials with all of the tools they need to ensure that our government remains open and accessible

STRENGTHEN FOIA AND CLOSE LOOPHOLES

• Ensure that FOIA applies when agency recordkeeping functions are outsourced
• Establish a new open government impact statement, by requiring that any future Congressional attempt to create a new FOIA exemption be expressly stated within the text of the legislation
• Impose annual reporting requirement on usage of the DHS disclosure exemption for critical infrastructure information
• Protect access to FOIA fee waivers for legitimate journalists, regardless of institutional association – including bloggers and other Internet-based journalists
• Provide reliable reporting of FOIA performance, by requiring agencies to distinguish between first person requests for personal information and other kinds of requests

HELP FOIA REQUESTORS OBTAIN TIMELY RESPONSES

• Establish FOIA hotline services, either by telephone or on the Internet, to enable requestors to track the status of their requests
• Create a new FOIA ombudsman, located at the Administrative Conference of the United States , to review agency FOIA compliance and provide alternatives to litigation
• Authorize reasonable recovery of attorney fees when litigation is inevitable

ENSURE THAT AGENCIES HAVE STRONG INCENTIVES TO ACT ON FOIA REQUESTS IN TIMELY FASHION

• Restore meaningful deadlines for agency action by ensuring that the 20-day statutory clock runs immediately upon the receipt of the request
• Impose real consequences on federal agencies for missing statutory deadlines
• Enhance authority of the Office of Special Counsel to take disciplinary action against government officials who arbitrarily and capriciously deny disclosure
• Strengthen reporting requirements on FOIA compliance to identify agencies plagued by excessive delay, and to identify excessive delays in fee status determinations

PROVIDE FOIA OFFICIALS WITH THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO ENSURE THAT OUR GOVERNMENT REMAINS OPEN AND ACCESSIBLE

• Improve personnel policies for FOIA officials to enhance agency FOIA performance
• Examine the need for FOIA awareness training for federal employees
• Determine appropriate funding levels needed to ensure agency FOIA compliance

Sen. Cornyn served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.