Revival of Freedom of Information Pipeline

Stranger at Blah3 brings some welcome news:

This is long overdue. Team Thug has ignored FOIA with impunity - but that may soon change.
A political odd couple, backed by an unusual coalition of advocacy groups and news organizations, is looking to crack down on government officials who ignore public requests for information.

Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) are pushing a package of legislative proposals that would create, for the first time, penalties for agencies that ignore Freedom of Information Act requests. They also want to create a position for an independent arbiter -- an ombudsman for FOIA -- who would help referee conflicts between the public and the government while requiring departments to provide more information on how quickly they process requests.

"A number of the reforms included in these bills are pretty basic in a lot of places, including my home state of Texas," said Cornyn, a former state attorney general. "In Washington, there's no real presumption of openness in the culture. If you're persistent enough and you're willing to wait long enough, you might actually get what you're entitled to. But there seems to be very few incentives . . . to encourage timely compliance with FOIA requests."