Open Government Victory: President Obama Signs FOIA Reform Into Law

"Today, we are celebrating President Barack Obama signing much-needed reforms to the Freedom of Information Act into law, just in time for the 50th birthday of the nation's landmark open government law on July Fourth. As we've written before, the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 is the result of years of work by advocates in Washington.

It is neither as strong nor as flawed a bill as it might have been, but codifying a “presumption of openness" for disclosing government records to the public is unquestionably a step forward for the United States. It's also a rare, welcome example of bicameral bipartisanship in a Congress notable for polarization, as well as an important victory for transparency in a city that needs it.

The stroke of the president's pen makes meaningful updates to the statute but cannot erase from history his administration's legacy on FOIA. In March of this year, a ProPublica reporter concluded that the federal government has simply stopped caring about disclosing public information."

Alex Howard reports for Sunlight Foundation blog June 30, 2016.