Bipartisan Bill Aims to Beef Up FOIA Compliance

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) unveiled the 2013 FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act which would direct officials to look closely at FOIA Online, a 5-month old joint FOIA Portal for the Commerce Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and a handful of other agencies. It would leave the door open for the governmentwide FOIA system to be built elsewhere, though. Their proposed legislation would also grant the Office of Government Information Services, which was established as a sort of FOIA ombudsman in 2007, to report directly to Congress rather than passing its reports and recommendations through the White House’s Office of Management and Budget first.