I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1326 
To promote openness in Government by strengthening section 552 of title 
5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Informa-
tion Act), and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 5, 2007 
Mr. SMITH of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
A BILL 
To promote openness in Government by strengthening section 
552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred 
to as the Freedom of Information Act), and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Gov-
ernment Act of 2007’’ or the ‘‘OPEN Government Act of 
2007’’. 
VerDate Aug 31 2005 
01:04 Mar 07, 2007
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1326.IH
H1326
jcorcoran on PROD1PC62 with BILLS
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Protection of fee status for news media. 
Sec. 4. Recovery of attorney fees and litigation costs. 
Sec. 5. Disciplinary actions for arbitrary and capricious rejections of requests. 
Sec. 6. Time limits for agencies to act on requests. 
Sec. 7. Individualized tracking numbers for requests and status information. 
Sec. 8. Specific citations in exemptions. 
Sec. 9. Reporting requirements. 
Sec. 10. Openness of agency records maintained by a private entity. 
Sec. 11. Office of Government Information Services. 
Sec. 12. Accessibility of critical infrastructure information. 
Sec. 13. Report on personnel policies related to FOIA. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) the Freedom of Information Act was signed 
into law on July 4, 1966, because the American peo-
ple believe that— 
(A) our constitutional democracy, our sys-
tem of self-government, and our commitment to 
popular sovereignty depends upon the consent 
of the governed; 
(B) such consent is not meaningful unless 
it is informed consent; and 
(C) as Justice Black noted in his concur-
ring opinion in Barr v. Matteo (360 U.S. 564 
(1959)), ‘‘The effective functioning of a free 
government like ours depends largely on the 
force of an informed public opinion. This calls 
for the widest possible understanding of the 
VerDate Aug 31 2005 
01:04 Mar 07, 2007
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1326.IH
H1326
jcorcoran on PROD1PC62 with BILLS
quality of government service rendered by all 
elective or appointed public officials or employ-
ees.’’; 
(2) the American people firmly believe that our 
system of government must itself be governed by a 
presumption of openness; 
(3) the Freedom of Information Act establishes 
a ‘‘strong presumption in favor of disclosure’’ as 
noted by the United States Supreme Court in 
United States Department of State v. Ray (502 U.S. 
164 (1991)), a presumption that applies to all agen-
cies governed by that Act; 
(4) ‘‘disclosure, not secrecy, is the dominant ob-
jective of the Act,’’ as noted by the United States 
Supreme Court in Department of Air Force v. Rose 
(425 U.S. 352 (1976)); 
(5) in practice, the Freedom of Information Act 
has not always lived up to the ideals of that Act; and 
(6) Congress should regularly review section 
552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly re-
ferred to as the Freedom of Information Act), in 
order to determine whether further changes and im-
provements are necessary to ensure that the Govern-
ment remains open and accessible to the American 
VerDate Aug 31 2005 
01:04 Mar 07, 2007
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H1326.IH
H1326
jcorcoran on PROD1PC62 with BILLS