WASHINGTON—As Sunshine Week nears, open-government leaders U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., on Wednesday introduced their latest tandem effort to peel back the curtains on government secrecy and further strengthen the nation’s primary open government law, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Their new bill would add new transparency and accountability standards when Congress considers adding new FOIA exemptions to the law. The OPEN FOIA Act would require Congress to explicitly and clearly state its intention to provide for statutory exemptions to FOIA in new legislative proposals. Similar legislation unanimously passed the Senate in the last Congress. The new OPEN FOIA Act follows the passage of the Leahy-Cornyn OPEN Government Act, which the President signed into law in December, adding the first reforms to FOIA in more than a decade, including restoring meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA and imposing real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline.

“It was encouraging to see Congress take major steps recently to expand the American people’s right to government information,” Sen. Cornyn said. “This latest bill is an effort to further enhance government transparency and accountability. Sunshine Week is an opportunity to highlight these important principles of our founding fathers—a truly self-governing society depends on an informed citizenry. Chairman Leahy and I will continue working together to ensure the public’s fundamental right to know what their government is doing.”

The exemptions to FOIA addressed in the OPEN FOIA Act, known as (b)(3) statutory exemptions, are typically buried in complex and lengthy legislative proposals, making it difficult for requestors to determine whether access to information is subject to FOIA. The OPEN FOIA Act would provide more transparency when Congress includes such exemptions in legislation.

“This Congress has signaled its support for strengthening the Freedom of Information Act,” Sen. Leahy said. “Senator Cornyn and I have worked together for years to restore openness and transparency to a government that has become increasingly secretive. While some government information needs to be kept secret, we cannot allow the government to hide behind the veil of secrecy and curb the public's right to know, just to avoid accountability. Our new legislation will take steps to make clear those exemptions to FOIA, and this is a fitting start to Sunshine Week.”

Sunshine Week is a national program highlighting the importance of open government and freedom of information. News organizations, schools, nonprofit groups and others have celebrated Sunshine Week since 2005, and this year the commemoration is set for March 17-21. Leahy and Cornyn are longtime advocates for open government.

On the Web: http://cornyn.senate.gov/FOIA 

Sen. Cornyn serves on the Armed Services, Judiciary and Budget Committees. In addition, he is Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. He serves as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Border Security and Refugees subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee’s Airland subcommittee. He served previously as Texas Attorney General, Texas Supreme Court Justice, and Bexar County District Judge.