New Effort Afoot to Pass FOIA Bill

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Source: Associated Press

Lawmakers are scrambling to align House and Senate versions of a bill to tighten freedom of information laws in time to pass it this year.

But with less than three weeks left before Congress recesses for the holidays, Democratic leaders say the chances of that happening are uncertain.

After talks to reconcile the bills went nowhere, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, presented a new version of their bill Tuesday that would bring its financial issues in line with the House version.

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The new Senate version, they said, would require that when the government loses or settles a FOIA case, the complainant's attorneys' fees are to be paid from funds already appropriated to the agency involved in the suit. The same would hold in cases in which the government does not respond within 20 days, the time limit the bill sets for responding to FOIA requests. The bill clarifies that the 20-day limit commences on the date on which the request is first received by the agency.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071205/ap_on_go_co/foia_bill_2