JON KYL - SENATOR SECRECY
Published on Sunday, June 03, 2007
by SANDRA MILLER:
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How important is it to know what the federal government is doing? To most of us, the answer would be that it is important — we want to know. But getting information from the federal government isn’t always easy. Freedom of Information Act requests can take weeks to months to years at times to get responses from federal agencies. |
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Senate Bill 849, which is known as the Open Government Act of 2007, is geared at reforming FOIA. The act would clarify a 20-day time limit for responding to information requests, would make it so each information request would have a tracking number and clarifies the recovery of attorney fees and litigation costs. For an analysis of this proposed act, log onto www.cornyn.senate.gov/doc_archive/OPEN2007.pdf.
A nearly identical bill was passed in March the U.S. House of Representatives.
But this bill was recently secretly held up by one senator — Arizona’s own Jon Kyl. This information was revealed only after the Society of Professional Journalists asked all of the senators who was holding up the bill.
Kyl, who has the nickname “Senator Secrecy,” explained he was wanting to allow more negotiations among him, bill co-sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the U.S. Department of Justice. The senator says it’s no secret he has concerns about the act, and he’s said the Justice Department has “uncharacteristically strong” objections to the bill.
Kyl also has argued that forcing the government to pay attorneys fees — even when it settles a case without going to court — could make it less likely to settle or change a decision about a FOIA request, according to an Associated Press report. Advocates disagree. They say the government likely would pay less if it voluntarily disclosed records in court proceedings, giving it an incentive to release information earlier in the process.
We think Kyl was wrong to secretly put a hold on the bill. If he’s going to hold up a bill, do it in public.
We also disagree with the senator over the bill. We see no problem with reforming the Freedom of Information Act to provide better access for the public to its supposed representative government.
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