One of the authors of a transparency reform bill passed unanimously by the Senate took aim at House Republicans after the lower chamber recessed for the 113th Congress without acting on it.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a statement saying the legislation would have restricted the executive branch’s ability to withhold information from the public, and that should have made it congressional conservatives’ bread and butter.
“I would think that members of the House Republican leadership, who have spent so much time on oversight of the Obama administration, would support the goal of making government more accountable and transparent,” the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement. “But instead of supporting this bill, they have chosen secrecy over sunlight.”
Leahy said the bill was supported by 70 public interest groups, and that it would have forced federal agencies “to adopt a ‘Presumption of Openness.’”
“This bill would require agencies to find a foreseeable harm if they want to withhold information from the public,” he said.
The standard would limit the next White House’s ability to shield government secrets, Leahy claimed. The statutory standard he sought had been implemented by President Obama in a 2009 executive order–a decree that reversed guidelines enforced by the Bush administration.
Leahy’s co-author, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), did not issue a statement about the House’s failure to move the bill.
The so-called FOIA Improvement Act had been held up in the Senate by the retiring John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Sen. Rockefeller claimed he had concerns that it would have a chilling effect on regulators and would, therefore, unintentionally undermine consumer protection laws. He released his hold Monday after the bill’s language was changed to reflect “Congressional intent that courts should take into consideration the concerns of agencies when they withhold information related to law enforcement efforts.”
