Lawmakers bounce calls for FOIA reform between chambers

Congressional supporters of reform to the law governing disclosure of public records have been ping-ponging statements back and forth this week in an attempt to get a bill passed. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) made a final bid Friday afternoon, saying the Senate could still pass reforms to the Freedom of Information Act if the Senate takes up the House version of the bill.

{mosads}”The reality is that, even today, the Senate could still send a bipartisan FOIA bill to the President if they were willing to accept some minimal differences,” Issa said in a statement. 

Issa, who sponsored legislation that unanimously passed the House earlier this year, said his bill is nearly the same as the Senate version, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and unanimously approved by the Senate earlier this week. 

“I’m disappointed that the House ran out of time to address concerns in the Senate bill and the Senate declined to approve a House-passed version, which had only minimal differences,” Issa said. 

An aide to Leahy said there is little chance the Senate could unanimously approve the House version, and took issue with Issa’s assertion that the bills are nearly identical. 

Both bills contain a provision to require a policy that presumes disclosure and would ban denials of records based on technicalities. But the Leahy aide expressed concern over the $20 million price tag for implementing the House bill over the next four years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

The Senate bill has not been scored, the aide noted.

Leahy and Issa had both unsuccessfully called on House leadership to take up the Senate’s version of the bill.

Leahy earlier in the day declared reform dead in the 113th Congress as the House gaveled out of session last night. The Senate remains in session in order to take up a government-funding bill.