POGO and Over 40 Government Transparency Organizations Thank Oversight Committee for Prioritizing FOIA

February 19, 2013

By Angela Canterbury

To:

February 19, 2013
Chairman Darrell Issa
US House of Representatives
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Ranking Member Elijah Cummings
US House of Representatives
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
2471 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Issa and Ranking Member Cummings:

The undersigned organizations, concerned with government openness and accountability, are writing to thank you and share our support for your work to hold agencies accountable for implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Your February 4th, 2013 letter to the Office of Information Policy at the Department of Justice poses important questions regarding OIP’s role in government-wide FOIA policy implementation, compliance, and enforcement.

We greatly appreciate the breadth and detail of your requests for information from OIP. As you know, outdated FOIA regulations, excessive fee assessments, growing FOIA backlogs, and the misuse of exemptions are issues that continually frustrate FOIA requesters and are major concerns for many in the transparency community.

As you point out in your letter, FOIA is an important option the public has for accessing information about the government’s activities. This tool is much less meaningful, however, if the public cannot use it to get timely access to the information to which they are entitled. Your letter is an excellent step towards identifying where a lack of oversight and attention on the part of OIP is contributing to these problems. We hope you will share your responses from OIP with the public, and look forward to future oversight hearings.

Thank you, again, for your attention to this issue of critical importance to transparent and accountable government. We welcome your continued oversight on this issue. To discuss these issues in greater detail, please contact Patrice McDermott, Executive Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, at [email protected] or 202-332-6736.

Signed by: