[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 108 (Monday, August 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
           THE ELECTRONIC FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT OF 1994

                                 ______


                          HON. MARIA CANTWELL

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, August 8, 1994

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that I 
believe will improve public access to Government under the Freedom of 
Information Act and make the Federal Government more accountable to the 
American people. Representatives Condit, Eshoo, Fingerhut, Shepherd, 
and Woolsey join me today as original cosponsors of this bill.
  The Freedom of Information Act [FOIA] was enacted in 1966. When he 
signed the Freedom of Information Act into law on July 4, 1966, 
President Lyndon Johnson said:

       This legislation springs from one of our most essential 
     principles: A democracy works best when the people have all 
     the information that the security of the Nation permits. No 
     one should be able to pull curtains of secrecy around 
     decisions which can be revealed without injury to the public 
     interest.

  Since 1966, FOIA has been used to provide citizens with information 
on how Government works and how decisions are made. An informed 
electorate is best able to hold Government accountable and root out 
waste, fraud and abuse of power in Government. For example, FOIA was 
recently used to uncover the human radiation experiments conducted 
under Government auspices in the decades after World War II.
  Over the past 20 years, information management and maintenance have 
dramatically changed. New guidelines are needed to reflect the computer 
revolution that has occurred in this country. It is important to 
clarify that Government has an obligation to respond to FOIA requests 
for information maintained electronically. This legislation makes clear 
that FOIA covers Government information in any format.
  It's time to bring FOIA into the computer age and reduce the delays 
that have plagued the current system. The Electronic Freedom of 
Information Act accomplishes these two important objectives by making 
Government information more accessible to the American people through 
the benefits of information technology and implementing improvements to 
alleviate delays in processing requests for information.
  The Electronic Freedom of Information Act of 1994 makes Government 
more accessible to the public by: Clarifying that FOIA requirements 
apply to records regardless of form, including agencies' electronic 
records; requiring that agencies provide records in requested form if 
records are maintained in that form, and make reasonable efforts to 
provide information in the form requested, even where such records are 
not usually maintained but are available in that form: requiring that 
agency regulations, opinions, and policy statements be accessible on an 
on-line basis or if not available by other electronic means such as CD-
ROM or on disc; requiring that a list of all FOIA released records be 
accessible on-line or if not available, by other electronic means, and 
that copies of FOIA released records that are subjects of repeated 
requests be accessible on-line or if not available, by other electronic 
means; requiring agencies to public on-line indexes of all major 
information systems used or maintained in electronic form and 
descriptions of any new major information systems; and requiring 
agencies to indicate the place and extent to which deletions are made 
in electronic records, so requesters will be able to know how much 
information has been deleted.
  This bill also will improve Government response to citizen requests 
for information by: Providing incentives for agencies to meet statutory 
deadlines--agencies can retain half of the fees they collect if they 
respond to requests within the deadlines established in the act; 
increasing the time allowable for responding to requests for 
information from 10 to 20 days, which will help agencies reduce their 
backlogs of requests; allowing a court to award, in addition to 
attorneys' fees and litigation costs permitted under current law, 
expenses to a requesters where agencies fail to comply with the time 
limits set by the act; authorizing agencies to handle simple requests--
those for which a determination on whether to comply with the request 
can be made in less than 10 days--and complex requests--those requiring 
more than 10 days to determine whether to comply--on two tracks, and; 
providing for expedited access to requesters that demonstrate--under 
penalty of perjury--a compelling need for a speedy response--less than 
20 days.
  As Federal agencies increasingly move to computers for information 
management, this legislation will ensure that Government is open, 
acessible and operating efficiently. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor 
and support the Electronic Freedom of Information Act of 1994.

                          ____________________