Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2427
Sponsor: Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT]
Introduced: 2007-12-06 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative fees
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil actions and liability
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Consent decrees
Disciplining of employees
Economics and Public Finance
Executive reorganization
Federal employees
Federal officials
Freedom of information
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Government statistics
Identification devices
Journalism
Law
Legal fees
Limitation of actions
National Archives and Records Administration
Ombudsman
Personnel management
Position classification
Promotions
Public records
Rating of employees
Reporters and reporting

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-06
text: 
Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007 or the OPEN Government Act of 2007 - Amends Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) provisions to define &quot;representative of the news media&quot; and &quot;news,&quot; specify examples of news-media entities, and provide that a freelance journalist shall be regarded as working for a news-media entity if the journalist can demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through that entity.

Provides that, for purposes of recovery of attorney fees and other litigation costs under FOIA, a complainant has substantially prevailed if the complainant has obtained relief through either: (1) a judicial order or an enforceable written agreement or consent decree; or (2) a voluntary or unilateral change in position by the agency, provided that the complainant's claim is not insubstantial. Requires attorney fees to be paid only from appropriations of an agency against which a claim or judgment has been rendered.

Directs the Attorney General to notify the Special Counsel of and report on civil actions taken for arbitrary and capricious rejections of requests for agency records.

Sets forth provisions concerning: (1) the tolling of the time limit within which agencies determine whether to comply with a request for records; and (2) refunding search fees if an agency fails to comply with time limits. 

Requires each agency to make available its FOIA Public Liaison to assist in resolving requester disputes.

Requires agencies to establish: (1) a system to assign an individual tracking number for each FOIA request that will take longer than ten days to process; and (2) a telephone line or Internet service to provide information on the status of requests.

Revises certain reporting requirements relating to FOIA requests and agency responses.
 
Establishes the Office of Government Information Services within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to: (1) review agency compliance with FOIA policies; (2) recommend policy changes; and (3) offer mediation services between FOIA requesters and administrative agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. 
 
Requires each agency to designate a Chief FOIA Officer and at least one FOIA Public Liaison.

Requires the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to report on personnel policies related to FOIA.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-06
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (text of measure as introduced: CR S14854-14855)
action_date: 2007-12-06
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S14853-14854)
action_date: 2007-12-06
text: Introduced in Senate