Free Flowing Information

Good news for a number of our Free Speech grantees: After much testimony and hard work, both the House and Senate have passed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill. Now it's headed to the President's desk for approval. According to the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government (an MTF grantee), the bill "creates a FOIA ombudsman, creates an agency penalty for not responding to a FOIA request promptly, requires improved agency reporting on FOIA performance and will allow requesters who sue to recover legal fees if an (agency) grants the records before a court ruling."

The bill comes after a number of studies and stories showed the federal government is abysmal at processing FOIA requests in a timely manner.

To view the text of the Open Government Act of 2007, visit: http://www.cjog.net/documents/Open_Government_Act_text.pdf