Houston Chronicle - Editorial: Cornyn Lets Sun Shine

Author Unknown

Throughout his career in Texas politics, John Cornyn has established a deserved reputation as a reliable advocate for openness in government and the free flow of information. No less so in his years as a U.S. senator.

Cornyn and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, surely earn the gold star for perseverance in pressing the openness agenda in our nation's capital. Once again, this political odd couple has introduced the Faster Freedom of Information Act, designed to reduce delays in granting Freedom of Information requests while cutting down the backlog on existing requests. It's past time for this to be made law.

Under Cornyn and Leahy's bill, an advisory panel would be convened to examine backlogs across the federal bureaucracy. The oversight group would also review procedures for charging fees and granting fee waivers. Over time, prohibitive expense has proved a troublesome block to the ready access of public documents. Cornyn also has called on the Obama administration to match actions with rhetoric in its processes of making information readily available to journalists and other parties.

This year, the Texas senator has added a second bill to his FOI agenda, calling for creation of a Texas-style sunset review process to periodically examine the perfor- mances of federal agencies and ferret out duplication and waste. Since its creation in 1977, Cornyn says, the Texas sunset process has saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

This approach appeals to us for at least two reasons. The first is its obvious potential to perform the same necessary errands on waste and duplication at the federal level that it does in Austin. The second is its potential to lower the partisan heat in Washington in favor of more sensible bipartisan decision-making. It appears to have worked that way in managing the state bureaucracy; perhaps it can do likewise with the federal one.

The budget mess in Washington and the noisy, too-partisan disagreement over how to solve it make Cornyn's suggestion of a sunset review process most timely. We urge serious consideration. Such a tool would effectively address budget concerns while easing the destructive atmosphere of partisanship.

Source