Bill Would Speed Up FOIA Responses

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced legislation Monday that would establish an advisory panel to examine agency backlogs in processing Freedom of Information Act requests for government information and provide recommendations on ways to improve agency responses to these requests.

The panel established by the bill also would be charged with examining whether the system for charging fees and granting fee waivers under FOIA should be changes to cut down on delays in processing fee requests. The panel would be made up of government and nongovernment representatives with experience in responding to and submitting FOIA requests and in setting government information policies.