FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 1211, the FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act, or FOIA Act, is a bipartisan bill approved unanimously by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last March. I cosponsored the legislation, which Ranking Member Elijah Cummings authored.

The bill is a product of the joint effort by our staffs. The legislation has been endorsed by 29 nonpartisan transparency groups, including the Project On Government Oversight, known as POGO, Government in the Sunshine, the Sunlight Foundation, and the American Society of News Editors.

Mr. Speaker, it is critical at this time that the American people believe and actually receive the information that lets them understand what their government is doing.

A key provision of this bill is to codify requirements in a FOIA memorandum issued by President Obama and Attorney General Holder. This includes making the presumption of openness standard the law of the land. That means that an agency can only withhold information if the disclosure of such records would cause foreseeable harm. This shifts the burden of proof from the public requester seeking information about a government agency, with which he must now demonstrate that he has the need to the government being open and transparent, unless it has a good reason to withhold.

The FOIA Act of 2014 also requires an unprecedented level of proactive disclosure. That means that more information will be made available to the public without each individual interested in the information needing to file separate FOIA requests to get it.

Mr. Speaker, in plain English, if one person and then another person or one entity and another entity seem to want to have the same information, rather than the agencies possibly posting it publicly, they will be required to post it publicly, so that which a few agencies want to know or a few private organizations want to know, the entire public would have easy access. Another way of putting it is, if you are going to tell one person that it is reasonable to have public access, then all the public should have easy access to that information.

These proactive disclosure requirements are intended to make the information-sharing a routine part of government. Like the DATA Act passed earlier this year, which the House approved, the FOIA Act requires all information be posted in an electronic, publicly accessible format.

Raw data will be available as the original format so that it can be machine-searched and give the widest ability for the public to have not just access to the letters, but access to the meaning and the cross-meaning of this information.

Under this bill, more agencies will be using technology to increase transparency by processing FOIA requests through a centralized Web portal. Users will submit requests in one location, where agencies can automatically post their response. This kind of one-point access is something the public has long waited for from the Federal Government.

The legislation before the House today modestly amends the committee-reported bill by establishing an Open Government Advisory Committee, housed within the National Archives' Office of Government Information Services. The Open Government Advisory Committee will ensure that reform efforts continue after this bill is enacted.

Mr. Speaker, this amendment to the FOIA law is one of the most important additional accesses to the American people; and I might note with thanks that this is an initiative begun by this administration, by President Obama, that we believe should be there for all times.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

We don't often find in this body the kind of consensus behind something that, as the ranking member said, has gone both ways under different Presidents.

I am a proud Republican, but I believe that the order given by President Obama was the right order. The order given by President Bush, perhaps in light of 9/11, perhaps in light of other considerations, might have seemed right at the time.

But let me make something clear today: on our committee, there is unanimity. The American people must have access to all the information, unless there is a specific reason to withhold it.

This requirement under FOIA today will drive the DATA Act and other reforms that will cause information to be likely stored in formats that are easier for agencies to determine that which they must withhold. We think it is important.

Today, legions of people often spend countless hours redacting nothing more than one name or one Social Security number that cannot be found, except by a set of eyes scanning over it.

So, in addition to the American people getting what they are entitled to under this act, we believe that it will drive the kind of innovation automation that actually will save the American people money and cause more information to be available.

Just as census data is critical to our economy, so is access to what your government is doing, planning to do, or thought about, talked about, or did in the process of making laws, regulations, and rules.

So I join with my colleague in believing that this is a time in which we say this President acted properly in how he ordered something, we believe codifying it, so that no follow-on President could modify it or fail to deliver what this legislation envisions.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, as I close, I want to thank my partner in this legislation, Mr. Cummings.

In order to get this kind of legislation, you do need to make sure that you have dotted the i's, and I believe we have done so. The minor modification that was made between the time it left the committee and the floor is one that was done on a bipartisan basis. Were this to go back to our committee, of course it would pass unanimously. Therefore, I urge all Members to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1211--to support the bill, to support freedom, to support the opportunity for the American people to know.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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