On August 3, 2007, the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent passed the “OPEN Government Act of 2007” (S. 849), a bill mandating major reforms in the operation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Similar legislation (H.R. 1309) overwhelmingly passed the House earlier this year by a vote of 308-117. It is unclear at this time whether a conference committee will be needed to iron out any differences between the two bills or whether the House will simply adopt the Senate bill as passed.

Specifically, S. 849 ensures that anyone who gathers information to inform the public, including freelance journalist and bloggers, may seek a fee waiver when they request information under FOIA. The bill ensures that federal agencies will not automatically exclude Internet blogs and other Web-based forms of media when deciding whether to waive FOIA fees. In addition, the bill also clarifies that the definition of news media, for purposes of FOIA fee waivers, includes free newspapers and individuals performing a media function who do not necessarily have a prior history of publication.

The bill also sets deadlines for agency action, by ensuring that the 20-day statutory clock under FOIA starts when a request is received by the appropriate component of the agency and requiring that agency FOIA offices get FOIA requests to the appropriate agency component within 10 days of the receipt of such requests. The bill allows federal agencies to toll the 20-day clock while they are awaiting a response to a reasonable request for information from a FOIA requester on one occasion, or while the agency is awaiting clarification regarding a FOIA fee assessment. In addition, to encourage agencies to meet the 20-day time limit, the bill prohibits an agency from collecting search fees if it fails to meet the 20-day deadline, except in the case of exceptional circumstances as defined by the FOIA statute.

The bill also addresses a relatively new concern that, under current law, federal agencies have an incentive to delay compliance with FOIA requests until just before a court decision that is favorable to a FOIA requestor. The Supreme Court’s decision in Buckhannon Board and Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Dep’t of Health and Human Resources, 532 U.S. 598 (2001), eliminated the “catalyst theory” for attorneys’ fees recovery under certain federal civil rights laws. When applied to FOIA cases, Buckhannon precludes FOIA requesters from ever being eligible to recover attorneys fees under circumstances where an agency provides the records requested in the litigation just prior to a court decision that would have been favorable to the FOIA requestor. The bill clarifies that Buckhannon does not apply to FOIA cases. Under the bill, a FOIA requester can obtain attorneys’ fees when he or she files a lawsuit to obtain records from the government and the government releases those records before the court orders them to do so. But, this provision would not allow the requester to recover attorneys’ fees if the requester’s claim is wholly insubstantial.

To address concerns about the growing costs of FOIA litigation, the bill also creates an Office of Government Information Services in the National Archives and creates an ombudsman to mediate agency-level FOIA disputes. In addition the bill ensures that each federal agency will appoint a Chief FOIA Officer, who will monitor the agency’s compliance with FOIA requests, and a FOIA Public Liaison who will be available to FOIA to resolve FOIA related disputes.

Finally, the bill enhances agency reporting and tracking requirements under FOIA. The bill creates a tracking system for FOIA requests to assist members of the public and the media. Tracking numbers are not required for FOIA requests that are anticipated to take ten days or less to process. The bill also establishes a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies, either by telephone or on the Internet, to enable requestors to track the status of their FOIA requests.

In addition, the bill also clarifies that FOIA applies to agency records that are held by outside private contractors, no matter where these records are located. And, to create more transparency about the use of statutory exemptions under FOIA, the bill ensures that FOIA statutory exemptions that are included in legislation enacted after the passage of this bill clearly cite the FOIA statute and clearly state the intent to be exempt from FOIA.