Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Congress sends Obama amendments to Freedom of Information Act; he says he will sign the bill

After several years of debate, Congress has passed and sent to President Obama several amendments to the Freedom of Information Act.

"In addition to adding a presumption in favor of disclosure to the actual text of FOIA, the bill would also create a centralized portal for FOIA requests across the government," Josh Gerstein reports for Politico. "However, the legislation was watered down somewhat from earlier versions before it passed the Senate in March. The changes were made to overcome resistance by some federal agencies and their supporters on Capitol Hill." For example, at attempt to require all agencies to accept records requests by email was not adopted. Neither was the idea of applying the law to Congress.

President Obama plans to sign the bill. The 50th anniversary of the FOIA is July 4.

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