TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending December 23, 2005

Executive Order 13392 Improving Agency Disclosure of Information

Upon taking office all administrations make changes to how well Freedom of Information Act requests for government documents succeed. The Bush administration tightened up on such releases of information making it a difficult challenge to get a response to a request let alone getting the information itself. The September 11, 2001 attacks brought even less willingness to release government information. For some reason the President has decided in this Executive Order, to loosen up on restrictions his administration has applied to such requests.

The EO begins by noting that “the effective functioning of our constitutional democracy depends upon the participation in public life of a citizenry that is well informed.” and goes on further to conclude that the forty years of the FOIA has provided that information readily. The EO, then, directs agencies to recognize that an FOIA request is seeking a service from the government and agencies should respond courteously and appropriately and should act to facilitate and clarify the process.

The EO directs agencies to designate within 30 days an assistant secretary-level individual to handle FOIA requests agency-wide and make recommendations to facilitate and improve the process. Exemption to gaining access must be made clear in advance to requesters.

Six months from now each agency must report on FOIA improvement milestones established and achieved or not. Not having met the milestones an agency head must identify the deficiency, explain the reason for the deficiency and outline steps taken and to be taken to solve the problems. The US Attorney General would help agencies at least to the extent of issuing instructions and guidelines for implementation.

## All Rights Reserved. © 2005 TheWeekInCongress.com.

No reproduction or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.