Improving government transparency

Six years after the last major terrorist attack on the United States, it is time to begin loosening the government's grip on information that ought to be in the public domain. On Dec. 31 President Bush signed bipartisan legislation, the "Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007," that will begin the process of making government more transparent.

In the 1966 Freedom of Information Act the federal government promised to respond quickly to requests for information unless disclosure could do harm. But it hasn't always kept the promise. Freedom of information requests often get buried in red tape and on numerous occasions news organizations and other researchers have had to go to court to get satisfaction.

Shortly after 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft made the government information obstacle course even tougher, ordering agencies to decide against releasing information if there was any uncertainty about possible harm to national security.

The new law does not expressly overturn the Ashcroft order, but it sets the grounds for a new legal interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act by urging federal agencies to adhere to the law's "strong presumption in favor of disclosure," citing language in a Supreme Court decision.

The law also makes it easier to obtain information quickly by setting a 20-day deadline for agency responses to requests. It makes agencies financially responsible for administrative and court costs when they are found to have violated the act. And it sets up a tracking system for requests, a hotline for resolving problems and an ombudsman in the Justice Department to provide an alternative to litigation.

Critics of the new law contend it doesn't go far enough. But the proof is always in the testing, which we wager will come sooner than later.