When Sunlight signed onto the 50 Days of FOIA campaign, we expected to be adding our voice and ideas to those of dozens of other open government allies pushing for Congress to pass legislative reforms to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Thankfully, we are now celebrating Congress sending FOIA reform to President Barack Obama. S.337 is currently listed as pending legislation on the White House website. We hope the president signs it into law by or on the 50th anniversary of the law on July Fourth.
The bill that Congress ultimately passed is neither as strong nor as flawed as it could have been, but it’s an evolutionary improvement in the statute that should improve a system that many journalists and members of Congress view as fundamentally broken. Continue…
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