Just over the past few months, records released under the FOIA have revealed FAA actions against Valuejet before the May 11 crash in the Everglades, the government's treatment of South Vietnamese commandos who fought in a CIA-sponsored army in the early 1960's, the high salaries paid to independent counsels, the unsafe lead content of D.C. tap water, and the types of tax cases that the IRS recommends for criminal prosecution. In the thirty years since the Freedom of Information Act became law, technology has dramatically altered the way government handles and stores information. Gone are the days when agency records were solely on paper stuffed into file cabinets. Instead, agencies depend on personal computers, computer databases and electronic storage media, such as CD-ROMs, to carry out their mission. The time is long overdue to update this law to address new issues related to the increased use of computers by federal agencies.
Computers are just as ubiquitous in federal agency offices as in the private sector.
We need to make clear that the FOIA is not just a right to know what's on paper law, but that it applies equally to electronic records. That is why Senator Brown, Senator Kerry and I, with the strong support of many library, press, civil liberties, consumer and research groups, have pushed for passage of the Electronic FOIA bill. The Senate recognized the need to update the FOIA in the last Congress by passing an earlier version of this bill. This legislation takes steps so that agencies use technology to make government more accessible and accountable to its citizens. Storing government information on computers should actually make it easier to provide public access to information in more meaningful formats.