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The FOI Advocate is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The blog relies on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Faster FOIA Act Proposed with Bipartisan Cooperation

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Faster FOIA Act last week to create a bipartisan commission to investigate why federal agencies have delayed responses to information requests and to suggest ways to speed up responses.

Agencies are supposed to answer requests within 20 business days, but often they take much longer. The Department of Homeland Security had a backlog of 18,918 FOIA requests at the end of 2009, and the Justice Department had nearly 5,000.

Senators Leahy and Cornyn previously teamed up to enact the Open FOIA Act, designed to end the use of overly broad interpretations of the act's exemptions to deny requests.

Read more about this display of bipartisan cooperation here.

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